Balcanica - nr 5 total

Carmina Balcanica is a member of the
Association of Literary Publications and Publishing Houses from Romania
&
Magazines and Publications Association from Europe
CARMINA BALCANICA
– REVIEW OF SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN
SPIRITUALITY AND CULTURE –
Year III, no. 2 (5)
November 2010
UNIVERSITATEA SPIRU HARET
FACULTATEA DE JURNALISM, COMUNICARE ŞI RELAŢII PUBLICE
FACULTATEA DE SOCIOLOGIE – PSIHOLOGIE
1
DIRECTOR:
DAN ANGHELESCU
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR IN CHIEF: DR. MIHAELA ALBU (University of Craiova, Romania)
ASISTANT TO THE EDITOR IN CHIEF: MARIUS CHELARU (writer, Iasi, Romania)
- Studies and Essays Editor: Mihaela Albu
Correspondence regarding contributions: e-mail: [email protected]
- Poetry and Haiku Editor: Marius Chelaru
Correspondence regarding contributions: e-mail: [email protected]
- Book Reviews Editor: Dan Anghelescu
Correspondence regarding contributions: e-mail: [email protected]
Specialist Consultant: Dr. Mircea Muthu (University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca,
Romania)
Editors: Dr. Aurel Cazacu (Univ. Spiru Haret), Dr. Ioan Gâf-Deac (Univ. Spiru Haret),
Dr. George Lăzăroiu (Univ. Spiru Haret), Dr. Emilia Parpala (Univ. din Craiova), Dr.
Florian Tănăsescu (Univ. Spiru Haret), Dr. Camelia Zăbavă (Univ. din Craiova)
English Editors: Dr. Aloisia Sorop, Dr. Iolanda Manescu (University of Craiova),
Maria-Denisa Albu, Dr. Catalin Florea, Dr. Camelia Minoiu (USA), IoanaRucsandra Dascălu
INTERNATIONAL BOARD
Zdravko Kissiov (writer, Bulgaria)
DR. Apostolos Patelakis (Institute of the Balkan Studies, Thessaloniki, Greece)
ACAD. Katica Kulavkova (Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia)
Acad. Răzvan Theodorescu (Asociaţia Internaţională de Studii Sud-Est Europene)
Baki Ymeri (writer, Albanezul Magazine, Romania & Macedonia)
Pavel Gătăianţu (writer, Europa Magazine, Serbia)
Zoran Pešić Sigma (Gradina magazine, Serbia)
DR. Theodor Damian (Metropolitan College of New York, USA)
DR. Constantin Eretescu (writer, USA)
DR. Sanda Golopentia-Eretescu (Brown University, USA)
DR. Heinz-Uwe Haus (University of Delaware, USA)
DR. Aurelia Roman (Georgetown University, USA)
DR. Marian Gh. Simion (Harvard University, USA)
Vasile Datcu (writer, Romania)
- The Editors assume no responsibility for any statement of fact or opinion
expressed in the published papers.
Cover: Map of Ancient Balkans; Pictures from Albania by Ardian Fezollari
ISSN 2065 - 0582
Correspondence regarding subscriptions should be sent to the editor in chief (e-mail:
[email protected]);
Institutional subscription: 15 Euro or 20 $ ; Individual subscription: 5 Euro or 6 $
2
CONTENTS
Carmina Balcanica şi dialogul intercultural / p. 7
Carmina Balcanica and the Intercultural Dialogue / p. 9
STUDIES AND ESSAYS
Luan R. TOPCIU (Albania) – Ballkani si hapësirë kultutore / p. 11
The Balkans as a Cultural Space (Translation: Rucsandra
Dascalu)/ p. 18
Mihaela ALBU (România) – Spaţii identitare în memorialistica românească:
oraşul/ p. 24
Identifying Places in the Romanian Memoirism - the City. Utopia and
Dystopia (Translation: Iolanda Manescu)/ p. 34
Maria ALEXE (România) Nastratin Hogea – O imagine balcanică a înţeleptului
rătăcitor/ p. 43
Nastratin Hogea - A Balkan Image of the Wandering Wise
(Translation Maria Alexe)/ p. 47
Dan ANGHELESCU (Romania) – Baki Ymeri: un anotimp sufletesc sans
rivage/ p. 51
Baki Ymeri: a Sans Rivage Soul’s Season (Translation: Aloisia Sorop)
(Translation: Aloisia Sorop)/ p. 57
Marius CHELARU (Romania)- Gjakmarrja – răsuflarea însângerată a
destinului/ p. 63
Gjakmarrja – the Bloodied Breath of Destiny (Translation Catalin
Florea)/ p. 70
Mircea MUTHU (România) - Konstandin şi Doruntina/ p. 75
Konstandin and Doruntina (Translation: Iolanda Manescu)/ p. 80
POEZIE/ POETRY
Bardhyl Londo (Albania) / p. 85
Visar Zhiti (Albania) / p. 89
Georgi Angelov (Bulgaria) / p. 93
Vanya Dusheva (Bulgaria) / p. 97
Krasimir Simeonov (Bulgaria) / 101
Maria Şleatiţchi (Republica Moldova) / 105
Paul Aretzu (Romania) / p. 109
3
Ionuţ Caragea (Romania, Canada) / 113
HAIKU
Ljudmila Hristova (Bulgaria) / p. 117
Boris Nazansky (Croatia) / p. 118
Đurđa Vukelić-Rožić (Croatia) / p. 119
Stjepan Rožić (Croatia) / p. 120
Alexandra Flora Munteanu (Romania) / p. 121
Eduard Ţară (Romania) / p. 122
Interviu/ Interview
From the Andes to the Balkans: The Itinerary of a Passionate Linguist
(Professor Aurelia Roman’s Interview with Professor Hector Campos)/ p. 123
BOOK REVIEWS
- Besnik Mustafaj, Vară fără întoarcere/ Besnik Mustafaj, Summer without
Return/ p. 144
- Ion Teodorescu, Coloniile albaneze din România. România şi statul albanez
(1912-1914)/ Kolonitë shqiptare të Rumanisë. Rumania dhe shteti shqiptar
(1912-1914)/ Ion Teodorescu, Abanian Colonies in Romania and the Albanian
State (1912-1914)/ p. 146
- Ismail Kadare, Anul Negru; Concurs de frumuseţe masculină la Stâncile
Blestemate/ Ismail Kadare, Black Gold; Male Beauty Contest at Curst Cliffs/ p.
- Marius Dobrescu, Drumul speranţei. O cronică a comunităţii albaneze din
România, povestită de ea însăşi/ Marius Dobrescu, Way of hope. A Chronicle of
the Albanian Community from Romania Told by themselves / p. 149
- Ismail Kadare, Mesagerii ploii/ Ismail Kadare, Messangers of the Rain/ p.
- Alis Niculică, Din istoria vieţii culturale a Bucovinei: Teatrul şi muzica
(1775-1940), Alis Niculică, From The History of Bucovina’s Cultural Life: The
Theatre and The Music (1775-1940)/ p. 157
- Bucovina în consemnări de epocă, antologie şi argument de Doina Papuc şi
Liviu Papuc/ p. 160
- Theodor Damian – Semnul Isar/ Theodor Damian – The Isar Sign/ p. 162
- Revista Albanezul/ The Albanian Magazine/ p. 167
Notes on Contributors/ 171
4
Aducând cu sine coabitarea celor trei straturi culturale
- arhaic, medieval şi modern - Sud-Estul poate ajuta Europa
să-şi reînveţe trecutul şi, nu în ultimul rând, să-şi remodeleze
proiectele de viitor.
Accompanied by the cohabitation of the three cultural
substrata – archaic, medieval and modern – the Southeast
can help Europe relearn its own past and, last but not least,
to remodel its projects for the future.
(Mircea Muthu)
5
6
Carmina Balcanica şi dialogul intercultural
Spaţiul sud-est european a fost analizat prin „constantele antropogeografice”, dar şi prin destinul istoric comun care a conferit multe
similitudini politice, religioase ori culturale ţărilor din regiune. Această
„cetate naturală a unei mari unităţi geografice”, cum o definea V.
Papacostea, şi a unei mari unităţi istorice, adăugăm noi, a determinat
totodată şi multiple interferenţe culturale.
Balcani, Balcanitate, Balcanism! Termenul din urmă a acumulat – în
timp – o conotaţie vădit peiorativă. Gândirea stereotipă – şi nu tocmai
inocentă – a unui Occident orgolios pare a continua (încă) să plaseze
asupra lui un stigmat negativ. Spiritualitatea, arta, cărţile de
înţelepciune, ca şi toate formele de interpenetraţie spirituală ar trebui să
justifice o de-peiorativizare a modului în care este privită şi înţeleasă
lumea Levantului. În acest sens, există deja solide argumente: toate
temeiurile civilizaţiei europene îşi au sorgintea în spaţiul balcanic. Ideea
de democraţie s-a născut la poalele Athenei. Ideea de constituţie a apărut
în spaţiul grecesc. Creştinismul avea să se răspândească în Europa prin
marea operă apostolică începută în Grecia. Într-un recent interviu,
academicianul român Răzvan Theodorescu reamintea că, deşi la
Sarajevo se va declanşa primul război mondial, n-ar trebui să dăm uitării
că Sarajevo a fost cândva perceput ca un nou Ierusalim, acolo
convieţuind toate civilizaţiile: musulmană, creştină, mozaică. Şi astfel
de exemple ar putea continua. Se uită astfel că Balcanii, priviţi azi ca un
tărâm al intoleranţei, au fost cândva model şi pildă de toleranţă.
Plecând de la ceea ce-l atrăsese pe marele istoric român N. Iorga –
Orientul ce cuprinde „Estul Europei (...) participând la civilizaţia
Europei” – intenţionăm ca prin revista cu nume sugestiv (Carmina
Balcanica) să revelăm nu numai specificul cultural al fiecărei ţări din
această „unitate” şi al ansamblului sud-est european, dar şi specificul
dialogului Orient-Occident. Cu alte cuvinte – contribuţia civilizaţiei şi
culturii spaţiului balcanic (extins geografic la întreaga parte de sud-est)
la cultura şi civilizaţia europeană.
7
Diversitatea de autori de origine diferită se conjugă – cu fiecare
număr al revistei – cu accentul pus pe o structură culturală specifică. În
cazul de faţă – Grecia de ieri şi de astăzi. Eseişti, poeţi, critici literari,
indiferent de origine, se vor apleca mereu către acest teritoriu, aşa cum
în numerele viitoare vor fi evidenţiate caracteristici culturale ale altor
ţări din spaţiul sud-estului european – Albania, Bosnia şi Herţegovina,
Bulgaria, Cipru, Croaţia, Macedonia, Muntenegru, Serbia, Turcia.
Deşi apare în România, revista nu este direcţionată numai către
cititorii români, ci şi – aşa cum poate ar fi fost de aşteptat şi de la alte
publicaţii cu adresabilitate similară, unor cititori din toate ţările lumii
balcanice (şi de aceea semnatarii au fost invitaţi să scrie în limba
maternă!). În plus, lărgind aria, prin fiecare studiu, eseu, poezie sau
recenzie – care au şi o versiune în limba engleză – revista se adresează
tuturor celor care, dincolo de Balcani, sunt interesaţi de fenomenul
cultural (unitar în diversitate) al zonei, cunoscute lumii îndeosebi prin
conflicte politice.
Aşadar, Carmina Balcanica doreşte să cuprindă în paginile ei
„melosul” balcanic în tot ceea ce poate acoperi metaforic cultura ţărilor
din spaţiul sud-est european. Dintr-o multitudine de manifestări literarartistice, revista va putea deveni încet-încet o oglindă a specificului
fiecărei ţări, dând seamă mai ales de ceea ce reprezintă din punct de
vedere cultural, prin ele însele, precum şi de ceea ce reprezintă
împreună pe harta spirituală a Europei.
În numele Redacţiei: Mihaela Albu
8
Carmina Balcanica and the Intercultural Dialogue
The southeastern European space has been analyzed through the
„antrohpo-geographical constants” as well as through the prism of a
common historic destiny, destiny which lead to political, religious or
cultural similarities for the countries in this region. This „natural citadel
of a large geographical entity”, as defined by V. Papacostea, and of a
large historical entity, shall we add, has determined the multiple cultural
interferences.
Balkans, Balkanity, Balkanism! The last word has acquired –
over time – a rather pejorative connotation. And the stereotypical
thinking of a haughty Western world continues to associate it with a
certain stigma. The spirituality, the arts, the teachings and all other
forms of higher expression found here should justify rather a
complimentary way in which the world of the Levant is regarded and
understood. There are actually already solid arguments for this. All
European civilizations have originated from the Balkanic space. The
idea of Democracy was born at the foothills of Athens. The concept of a
Constitution appeared for the first time in Greece. The Christianity has
spread throughout Europe due to the apostolic work started in Greece as
well. In a recent interview, the Romanian Academy member Razvan
Theodorescu noted that, although the First World War was started in
Sarajevo, one should not forget that Sarajevo is the same place
considered at one point as the New Jerusalem, where three civilizations
were coexisting: Judaic, Christian and Muslim. And more examples
could be added. It is forgotten that what is now seen as a land of
intolerance was in the past a true model of coexistence.
Starting from the point of view expressed by the great
Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga – the Orient, by including “the
Eastern Europe (...) takes part to building of the European civilization” –
we intend through this literary journal, suggestively entitled Carmina
Balcanica, to reveal not only the cultural identity of each country from
this space but also the salient features of the Western-Eastern dialogue.
9
In other words, we intend to emphasize the contribution of the Balkan
space (geographically extended to the South and to the East) to the
European culture and civilization.
The diversity, by origin, of authors is conjugated – in each issue
– with a given theme. In the present case: the Greece from yesterday and
the Greece from today. Essayists, poets, literary critics, regardless of
origin, will reflect upon this cultural and spiritual territory, as it will be
done for other countries in the future issues – Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia, Turkey.
Although the journal is published in Romania, it is not intended
specifically for the Romanian readers but rather – as it would have been
expected from similar publications, to readers from all over world: the
Balkans and beyond. That is why the invited authors are encouraged to
submit material in their maternal language. That is why there is an
English version for all the submitted material as we try with every
essay, poem or literary analysis to surpass the geographical boundaries
and make it relevant for all those interested in the Balkans, a space
plagued by political conflict and yet culturally and spiritually united
through diversity.
Carmina Balcanica is intended therefore to reflect the cultural
musicality, harmony of the Balkan space. From a mosaic of literary
expressions, it is hoped that the journal will slowly crystallize the
cultural identity of each represented country and their place, as a unified
space, on the cultural and spiritual map of Europe.
(Translation: Catalin Florea)
10
STUDII ŞI ESEURI / STUDIES & ESSAYS
LUAN TOPCIU (ALBANIA)
Ballkani si hapësirë kultutore
Hapësira-matricë, që vijon të jetë e përfytyruar
në mënyrë hipotetike, mund të jetë një parvaz,
deri në një pikë të përbashkët të një grupi
popujsh, fjala vjen popujt ballkanikë.
Luçian Blaga
Mund të flasim vallë për një hapësirë
kulturore të përbashkët në Ballkan? Krahas hapësirës gjeografike të
përbashkët mund të flasim për një hapësirë shpirtërore dhe kulturore të
përbashkët? A mundet popuj që flasin gjuhë kaq të pangjashme, në
pamje të parë, madje që bëjnë pjeësë në familje gjuhësore të ndryshme
të përbëjnë një hapësirë kulturore të përbashkët. Kjo pyetje e shkurtër
shtron një problem të thjeshtë që mund t’i përgjigjemi në mënyrë të
thukët me një po apo jo. Përgjigja e thukët mund të jetë pohuese për ata
që janë mësuar ta paraqesin Ballkanin përmes stereotipish
konvencionale, dhe për pasojë, ekuivalon me një të presupozuar
“hapësirë kulturore ballkanike”. Gjendja e çrregullt dhe ndjesia e
parregullsisë e shoqëron këtë rajon të botës-të gjithë dallojnë lehtësisht
jug-lindjen evropiane nga normat e jetës të qytetëruar, nga Europa veriperëndimore. Ndonëse, po aq mirë, përgjigja mund të jetë dhe negative.
Si mundet vallë që dikush të imagjinojë që në një rajon, që gjatë
historisë së vet është bërë sinonim me shpërbërjen dhe konfrontimin e
dhunshëm, mund të përbëjë një hapësirë kulturore konverguese dhe të
përbashkët. Ai mund të përcaktojë përmes saj atë që elementët kulturalë
janë të përbashkët dhe bëjnë pjesë në një sistem të përbashkët mendimi
dhe vlerash. Vendosja gjeografike, veçoritë etnike dhe rrethanat
historike krijojnë premisat e peizazhit të Europës Jug-Lindore dhe
zbulimi i mekanizmave të komplikuar të interferencave ekonomike,
politike, fetare dhe-ajo që na intereson ne në mënyrë të posaçmendërthurjet kulturore. Mesjetës lindore i është zbuluar ritmi i një
frymëmarrje unitare: marrëdhëniet në turkokraci, i Bizantit të zhdukur
11
më 1453, funksioni lidhës i ortodoksisë përbëjnë izoglosat e
përgjithshme në këtë hapësirë deri në fund të shekullit të XVIII. Në
periudhat e mëvonshme, në shekujt XIX dhe XX mund të flitet për një
linjë vazhdimësie si një forma mentis. Uniteti në ndryshueshmëri i
Europës Jug-Lindore përbën një të dhënë të përhershme të hapësirës
ballkanike.
Në veprën e vet Hapësira Mioritike, Luçian Blaga, përpiqet të
ndërtojë një teori autoktone mbi realitetin kulturor rumun. Ashtu siç do
të vërë re G. Calinescu, Blaga është “ i pari që u përpoq të ngrejë një
sistem filozofik integral, me mure, me një “kupolë” dhe t’i japë kësaj
filozofie një aplikim në realitetin kombëtar.” Është hera e parë kur stili
rumun është vështruar përmes një prizmi filozofik dhe në kuadrin e një
filozofie të kulturës. Blaga flet mbi një horizont hapësinor dhe për
thekse shpirtërorë, të cilat zotërohen nga një fat njerëzor, nga një short
që është i përbërë nga një frymë e caktuar dhe nga një gjak i caktuar,
nga rrugë të caktuara, nga vuajtje të caktuara. Blaga flet për horizontin
hapësinor të inkoshiencës, i cili, sipas mendimit të tij, është një realitet
psiko-spiritual më i thellë dhe më i efektshëm se sa mund të jetë
ndonjëherë një ndjenjë e thjeshtë. Horizonti hapësinor i inkoshiencës shihet prej filozofit rumun, si një realitet shumë kompleks, ai mund
dëshmojë rolin e tij përcaktues për strukturën stilistike të një kulture
apo të një spiritualiteti, qoftë ky kolektiv, qoftë individual të cilën mund
ta quajmë hapësirë matricë.
Horizonti hapësinor inkoshient nuk është një korrespondencë e
peizazhit real, por është diçka më shumë: është korrespondenca e një
shpirti, në rastin tonë horizonti i “hapësirës mioritike” është
korrespondentja e një shpirti që “ngjitet dhe zbret, lartohet dhe zhytet në
një nivel, një ritëm i përsëritur, monoton dhe i pafund”. Në realitet
“hapësira mioritike”, horizonti i një hapësire të valëzuar, shpreh
nyjëtimin e një shpirti që “ngjit” një shpresë dhe “zbret” një zhgënjim,
shpreh hapësirën e valëzuar në alternancën e relievit që e implikon,
shpreh horizontin inkoshient të një shpirti në alternancë të vazhdueshme
theksash, në alternancë të vazhdueshme të natyrës, të gjendjeve
shpirtërore, të ndjenjave që provon. Alternimi “kodër-luginë” që rreh
një dojnë, nuk është një pasqyrim i thjeshtë i peizazhit real; ai
korrespondon me një alternancë gjendjesh shpirtërore: melankolia këtu
është e rëndë, atje më e lehtë; këtu pesimizmi i një shorti të
paparashikueshëm, atje optimizmi i një shpëtimi të mundshëm nga
fataliteti i tij.
12
“Hapësira-matricë, që mbetet hipotetike për t’u përfytyruar, mund
të jetë një parvaz, deri në një pikë të përbashkët të një grupi popujsh,
mbase popujt ballkanikë. Natyrisht - shkruan dijetari rumun në studimin
e tij, ne na intereson këtu fenomeni rumun. Tash për tash duhet të bëjmë
abstraksion nga gjithë fqinjët tanë dhe për më tepër në çfarë mase këta
fqinjë kanë qenë të kontaminuar me frymën e hapësirës sonë.”1
Ndonëse autori bën abstraksion nga përkimet e mundshme që
mund të ketë kjo hapësirë me popujt e tjerë të Ballkanit, sepse synimi i
tij është konturimi i një filozofie kombëtare rumune, por në përpjekjet
për të gjetur një gjeografi të horizontit hapësinor të inkoshiencës, ndjen
nevojën të shtrihet po në Trevat Ballkanike, kështu Blaga do të shprehet
“ Kështusoj horizonti hapësinor i inkoshiencës i ka dhënë rumunit, kudo
që ai të ndodhet nostalgjinë e pllajës. Kjo nostalgji e padyshimtë ka çuar
në kohëra të hershme çobanin vllah në gjithë shtrirjen e Karpateve, nga
ujërat e Danubit deri në Maramuresh, prej këtej deri në Moravia, apo në
të kundërt, gjithashtu në gjithë pllajat jugosllave dhe deri në Panonia
domethënë përtej kufijve të një territori të gjerë, ku peizazhi mund të
kënaqë oreksin e horizontit hapësinor inkoshient. Në shekujt e mugët,
gjatë gjithë kohës së fillimit të formacioneve etnike aktuale, atëherë kur
rumuni nuk kishte asnjë lloj atdheu, pllaja, e shenjta pllajë, sanksionuar
nga një ndjenjë e caktuar e shortit, luante rolin e mëmëdheut.2Sipas
Luçian Blagës, kjo teori mund të sqarojë dhe faktin se mund të ndodhen
në të njëjtin peizazh gjeografik të bashkekzistojnë kultura dhe horizonte
hapësinore thellësisht të ndryshme. “Lucian Blaga dhe Mircea Eliade
përbëjnë dy pika referimi jo vetëm për meditimin rumun mbi kulturën,3
por dhe për meditimin ballkanik mbi kulturën. Blaga në posturën e
teoricienit letrar përkufizon veprën letrare si një “kozmogoid”, duke
sjellë në të njëjtën kohë saktësime të rëndësishme për studimin e
metaforës. Poeti dhe filozofi ndërton veprën sipas një koncepti këndor të
mendimit kritik të teorizuar në volumin “Daimonion” (1926) për ta
rimarrë në veprën e mirënjohur të tij “Triologjia e kulturës” (1935).
Duke u nisur nga pozitat gjeo-politike, Blaga thekson karakterin sintezë
të kulturës rumune dhe nga ana tjetër, zhvillimin e saj në formën e
kapërcimeve rekuperatore. Kultura franceze ofrohet si një “model” si
1
Lucian Blaga,”Despre dor”, în vol. “Triologia culturii”, Bucureşti, 1944. f.56.
Lucian Blaga, ibidem.
3
Mircea Muthu, “Alchimia mileniului”, Lucian Blaga în “orizontul” cultural sud - est
european., Editura “Cartea Românească”, Bukuresht, 1989. f.20.
2
13
dallim nga kultura gjermane që ka pasur pandërprerje shijen e
“individit” dhe të “veçantës”. Nëse ndikimi i kulturës franceze
konsiderohet modelues, ai gjerman, thotë Blaga, është i tipit katalitik, në
kuptimin që ajo ka pasur “më pak karakterin e një modeli të kufizuar,
sesa karakterin e një thirrje në brendinë tënde, në shpirtin tënd etnik.
Momentet madhore të kulturës rumune takohen me vlerat e kulturës
gjermane. E thënë ndryshe, ana mesdhetare, diellore, takohet me atë
veriore, të ftohtë, në sinteza siç është krijimtaria e Eminescu-t, apo më
vonë e vetë Blagës. Dy tipet e ndjeshmërisë takohen në një fond
rezistent të një ndjeshmërie popullore (fshatare). Vendi i saj gjeometrik,
do të ishte fshati arkaik, i konsideruar si një “centrum mundi”, i
përjetshëm, i pandryshueshëm nga historia. Ky absolutizim i funksionit
të fshatit atemporal është i dyfishuar nga interesi i poetit dhe filozofit
për mitet, duke i shpjeguar, veçmas, hapjen e tij drejt letërsisë
ekspresioniste të kohës, si shprehje e forcave “elementare” dhe
“anonime” që Blaga i rigjente duke studiuar ekspresionizmin sui generis
nga arti bizantin apo indian.1 Blaga manifestoi njohjen e perimetrit të
gjerë të interesit për krijimtarinë popullore të cilën ai e demonstroi, në
ansamblin e veprimtarisë së tij. Në qershor 1937, me rastin e ligjëratës
së tij në Akademi, duke nderuar fshatin rumun, ai që pas Goethe-s,
kërkonte “dukurinë origjinale”, nderonte tani “fshatin - ide” Çdo fshat
ndihet, në vetëdijen kolektive të bijve të vet, një lloj qendre e botës, si
në mënyrë optike çdo njeri e vendos veten në qendër të botës. Vetëm
ashtu shpjegohen horizontet e gjëra të krijimtarisë popullore në poezi,
në art, në besim, atë përjetim që merr pjesë tek e gjitha, siguria e
pagabueshme e krijimtarisë, begatia e nënkuptimeve dhe e nuancave,
implikimet e një rezonance të pafundme dhe vetë spontaniteti i
shpenguar. Blaga do të rikthehet në këtë pranim të “fshatit-model”, të
“fshatit ide” konservator dhe të padepërtueshëm në qytetërimin modern.
I lindur në fshat, Blaga do ta konsideronte gjithmonë atë si një vend të
privilegjuar: “Fshati gjendet në qendër të botës dhe përzgjatohet në mit.
Ai integrohet në një short kozmik, në një ecuri jete tërësore - përtej këtij
horizonti nuk ekziston asgjë.”2 Fshati mbetet, së bashku me folklorin e
tij, burimi i gjithhershëm i veprimtarisë rumune, konkluzion që Mircea
Eliade e shtrin hetimin e tij në gjithë jug-lindjen evropiane. Besoj se
Blaga nuk zhgënjehet, vetëm se burimi i krijimtarisë rumune ka një
1
2
Lucian Blaga, “Elogiul satului românesc”, discursul de recepţie la Academia Română.
Mircea Muthu, ibidem
14
tjetër shpjegim më bindës. “Kultura folklorike është ushqyer nga ai që
quhet krishterim kozmik, d.m.th. një krishterim ku elementi dogmatik
bëhet i plotë.” Në të njëjtin Ditar vëzhgon që “Vetëm fshatari i Evropës
Lindore ka ruajtur përmasën kozmike të krishterimit”...Fshatarët e
Evropës Lindore e kanë kuptuar për shumë kohë krishterimin si një
“liturgji kozmike” bindje e ushqyer nga “ndjenja e solidaritetit me ritmet
kozmike” Krishterimi kozmik është pra “i dominuar nga nostalgjia pas
natyrës të shenjtëruar qysh para pranisë së hyjshmërisë.”1
Këtë rëndësi të folklorit, të mitit, të ritmeve kozmike, së fundi të
“fshatit ide”, “të nostalgjisë pas natyrës së shenjtëruar” i gjen të
pranishme pak a shumë në të gjitha viset ballkanike.
Një trajtim i mundshëm, në ndihmë të idesë të “hapësirës
shpirtërore të përbashkët ballkanike”, mund të jetë ajo antropologjike,
një përpjekje për të rifituar vlerat e përbashkëta dhe besimet ashtu siç
janë ato të ilustruara në sjelljet dhe format e shprehjes simbolike në
origjinë. Antropologët dhe studiuesit e folklorit kanë shqyrtuar prej
shumë kohësh zakonet apo kuadrin normativ të përbashkët posaçërisht
tek popullsia e fshatarëve të rajonit të Ballkanit.
Një shembull i rëndësishëm, nismëtareje, ka dhënë studiuesja e
terrenit M. E. Durham në fillim të shekullit të XX, në kuadrin e të cilit
janë inventarizuar zakone të përbashkëta që nuk merrnin parasysh
ndryshimet fetare midis kulturave tribale të krishtera apo myslimane në
Shqipëri, Bosnjë dhe Mal të Zi. Nga ana tjetër, shton të dhënat
etnografike në lidhje me motivet e përbashkëta ballkanike në artin
popullor dekorativ, në poezitë dhe baladat popullore, si dhe një numër
proverbash të përbashkëta. Në bazë të këtyre dëshmive etnografike
mund të ndërtohet një argumentim i rëndësishëm në ndihmë të një
sistemi vlerash të përbashkëta në Ballkan. Kjo bazë e përbashkët është
vënë në dyshim jo vetëm në bazë të vërtetshmërisë së dëshmive
empirike apo të disa parimeve metodologjike, por për më tepër duke u
nisur nga pretendimet dhe kundrapretendimet nacionaliste që lidhen me
karakterin “autentik” të formave të shprehjes popullore simbolike. 2
Një togfjalësh tjetër i pranuar për Gadishullin Ballkanik është dhe
ai i Jug-Lindjes së Europës si një trup gjeografik ndërmjetës midis
Europës dhe Azisë apo të një “kështjelle natyrale të një njësie të madhe
1
Ibidem
Paschalis M. Kitromilides, “Mentalitatea Balcanică” istorie, legendă, imaginaţie”,în
rev. “Secolul 20”, 7-9, Bucuresht 1997, f. 77
2
15
gjeografike” (Victor Papacostea, 1943), në dy dhjetëvjeçarë u analizua
“gjeografia politike” e Ballkanit (Jacques Ancel, 1926). Gadishulli
Ballkanik është i mbyllur përmes një zinxhiri malor dhe përmes hapjes
detare, me një përzierje etno-gjuhësore që përbëjnë një lidhje socialpolitike dhe letraro-artistike. Komuniteti ka të përbashkët dhe një short
historik me natyrë socio-ekonomike, fetare, politike dhe kulturore. Për
këtë “unitet kulturor” ndihmon pa dyshim, vazhdimi deri vonë i
“demokracive rurale”1, përpos Greqisë, janë disa qytetërime të tipit
agrar. Kjo shpjegon, në një farë mënyre lindjen e vonshme të borgjezisë
ballkanike dhe rezistencën e tejzgjatur të feudalizmit, institucionalizimi
i vonët i kulturës së shkruar–të gjitha këto ndihmojnë në kristalizimin e
nocionit Jug-Lindje. Si një hapësirë me interferenca kulturore e
qytetëruese nga Perëndimi dhe nga Lindja Gadishulli Ballkanik përbën
një interes të posaçëm në studimin e historisë së mentaliteteve, të
letërsisë së krahasuar dhe të filozofisë së kulturës. Ky aliazh lindoroperëndimor lë shenja në mentalitetin, psikologjinë dhe në krijimtarinë
artistike të njeriut të kësaj hapësire. Kështu mund të flasim, për
strukturën më të vjetër epike-rrëfimin, këtë dëshirë të pashtershme të
njeriut ballkanik. Duke u ndodhur diku në mes njeriu ballkanik ka
vetëdijen e një ekuilibri të paqëndrueshëm. “Ne, (rumunët sh.y) –
shkruan Mircea Eliade, ndodhemi realisht në mes, mes dy kulturash,
Perëndimi dhe Lindja, ne mund të ngremë një urë, mund të lehtësojmë
komunikimin e vlerave nga Perëndimi dhe Lindja dhe anasjelltas. Dhe
kjo jo vetëm se jemi ku jemi në Lindje dhe megjithatë në Perëndim-por
me që jemi ndër kulturat e pakta europiane që kemi ruajtur ende të gjalla
disa gurra të kulturës popullore dhe arkaike…”2
Togfjalëshat “unitet në diversitet”, “tradita politike bizantine”,
“humanizëm i krishterë”, “fryma jug-lindore”, “ballkanizëm letrar”, janë
përmbledhje të hetimeve të specializuar në politologji, historinë e së
drejtës, bizantologji apo letërsi të krahasuar. Imagjinarja letrare
ndihmon në përçapjen krahasimtare, kështu ballkanizmi letrar, ky
koncept-imazh, përbën një element thelbësor që vendoset në bazë të
përkimeve në këtë hapësirë.
1
Nicolae Iorga, “Istoria românilor din Peninsula Balcanică (Albania, Macedonia, Epir,
Tesalia etc.,)” Bucureşti, 1919. f.3
1
Ibidem. f.4-5.
2
M. Eliade, L’Epreuve du labyrinthe, Entretiens avec Claude-Henri Roquet, F. Belford,
Paris, 1978, f. 74
16
Antitezat dhe konjukturat lindor-perëndimor janë të përshkruara
dhe të shpjeguara me detaje nga brendësia e të ashtuquajtura “kultura të
vogla” (Lucian Blaga) duke vërtetuar kështusoj funksionalitetin e
parimit pars pro toto. Në një konferencë që do të mbajë Costantin
Noica në Berlin do të trajtojë problemin e tensioneve të brendshme në
kulturat e vogla, botuar në revistën e Fondacioneve Mbretërore, 1943
me titullin Ç’është e përjetshme dhe ç’është historike në kulturën
rumune. Autori diskuton “tensionin” midis të përjetshmes/ngrirjes në
histori duke konkluzionuar se “mbartim në vetvete dhe atë që është e
përjetshme dhe atë që mund të jetë historike” Lucian Blaga kishte ofruar
dhe ai, në mënyrë intuitive, zgjidhjen, gjegjësisht pranimin e
“bizantinizmit të shkundur” apo “bizantinizmit dinamik, të kontaminuar
me elementet e Rilindjes dhe të barokut”.
Ndërsa në përpjekjet e tij teorike për të paraqitur horizontin
hapësinor të subkoshiencës, filozofi rumun Lucian Blaga le një dritare
të hapur për një hapësirë të tillë të popujve ballkanikë.
Popujt ballkanikë, me intervale të shkurtra ndarëse, kanë jetuar
gjithmonë pranë njeri-tjetrit. Nën dominimin maqedonas, romak,
bizantin apo turk - këto realitete i kanë imponuar botës ballkanike,
pothuaj gjithmonë ritmin e një frymëmarrjeje të njëjtë, thekse të njëjtë
shpirtërorë, konstitucion tejet të ngjashëm.
Karl Krumbacher shkruan se “ gjithë popujt e Gadishullit
Ballkanik me ishujt që ka anash në lindje e në perëndim dhe me një
pjesë të madhe të Azisë së Vogël përmblidhen në njësi kulturore të
madhe, fondamentin historik të së cilës e formon Perandoria e
dikurshme Bizantine dhe cementin e formon feja ortodokse”1
Për këtë bashkëjetesë mijëravjeçare do të jepnin mendimet e tyre
në vepra të ndryshme dhe personalitete të kulturës rumune mes të cilëve
A.D. Xenopol, Nicolae Iorga dhe B.P. Haşdeu. Të dhënat e shumta të
sjella nga këta autorë kanë sjellë një ndihmesë në dallimin e disa
marrëdhënieve të një fqinjësie të afërt, të gjitha na çojnë në konkluzione
të rendit shpirtëror.
“Duke bashkëjetuar në një ndërvarësi të ngushtë, në të shumtat e
rasteve në të njëjtin sistem ekonomik, administrativ dhe politik, duke
praktikuar një shkëmbim të pandërprerë reciprok vlerash materiale dhe
shpirtërore, popujt ballkanikë kanë kapur, përpos diferencave specifike,
1
Karl Krumbacher, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 8, 557, shih E. Çabej, “Studime
gjuhësore”, Rilindja, Prishtinë, 1975.
17
karakteret e përbashkëta të një “familje të madhe njerëzore, e ndjeshme
në të gjitha manifestimet historike.”1
The Balkans as a Cultural Space
A possible approach, to sustain “the common Balkan spiritual
space” would be the anthropological one, an attempt to redeem the
common values and beliefs, as they were exemplified in the behaviours
and in the forms of symbolic expressions in the beginning.
“The womb–space, which is going to be hypothetically
imagined, might be a window sash, to a certain extent common to
an entire group of peoples, for instance the Balkan peoples“
(Lucian Blaga).
Can we speak about a common cultural space in the Balkans? A
small geographical zone, made up of peoples who speak apparently so
different languages, which are part of different linguistic families. The
peoples that share the same geographical zone can they compose a
common cultural zone? This short question might raise a simple issue
that can have a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer.
The answer might be positive for those used to represent
themselves the Balkans through conventional stereotypes, and
consequently, it might compensate an alleged Balkan cultural space.
The state of disorder and the feeling of untidiness associated to this
region of the world-they all differentiate the European south-east from
the norms of civilized life in North-Western Europe.
But the answer might be negative as well. How can someone
imagine that in a region that, along history, became synonymous to
violent secession and confrontation, there might be a common cultural
space? It can be defined by the fact that cultural elements are common
and are part of a common system of thinking and values.
1
Cornelia Papacostea – Danielopolu, “Civilizaţia românească şi civilizaţia balcanică”,
Ed. Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1983, f. 16.
18
In L. Blaga’s work Mioritza’s Space, the author applies the
theories he formulated in anterior studies to the Romanian reality and to
the Romanian cultural phenomenon. As G. Calinescu observes, Blaga is
“the first who tried to raise an entire philosophical system, with walls
and a cupola and to apply this philosophy to the national realities”. For
the first time, the Romanian style is regarded through the philosophical
lens, in the context of a philosophy of culture; for the first time it is
integrated within a philosophical view on culture. Blaga speaks of a
spatial horizon and of accents of the soul that this horizon can obtain
from a human destiny, from a destiny composed of a certain spirit and
of a certain blood, of certain ways, of certain sufferings. Blaga speaks
about “the spatial horizon of unconsciousness”, that, to his mind, is a
deeper and a more efficient psycho-spiritual reality than a mere feeling
could be. The spatial horizon of unconsciousness can really acquire the
role of capital fact for the stylistic structure of a culture or of spirituality,
individual or collective, that he calls “the womb-space”.
The unconscious spatial horizon is not a simple correspondence
of the environment, it is something more: it is the correspondence of a
spirit, in this case the horizon of “Mioritza’s space” is the
correspondence of a spirit having “ups and downs, its ascensions and its
fallings into the depth, repeatedly, monotonously and endlessly”. In fact,
“Mioritza’s space”, the horizon of a “curly” space, expresses the
tribulations of a soul that is lifted with hope and put down with despair,
it expresses the waved space with the alternance of landscapes, it
expresses the unconscious horizon of a soul permanently searching for
accents, for natures of states of mind, of experienced feelings. The “hillvalley” repetition crossing a “doina” is not a simple reflection of the
environment; an alternance of states of mind corresponds to it:
melancholy is more difficult here, easier there; here the pessimism of
unforgiving fate, there the optimism of a possible escape from its
fatality (Lucian Blaga, “Despre dor” in: Trilogia culturii, Bucharest,
1944, p. 56). Of course, as the Romanian scholar writes in his study, we
are interested in the Romanian phenomenon. For the time, we must put
aside all neighbours, especially the problem of the extent to which the
neighbours had been contaminated with the spirit of our space.
Although the author avoids the possible agreements of this
space with the other Balkan peoples, his aim is to sketch a national
philosophy. In his attempts to find geography in the spatial horizon of
unconsciousness, he needs to extend to Balkan territories. Blaga said:
19
“The unconscious spatial horizon gave the nostalgia of <<the field>> to
the Romanian, wherever he were. In the Middle Ages, this unforgiving
nostalgia guided the Wallachian shepard to the peaks of the Carpathians,
from the water of the Danube as far as the Maramures, from here further
to Moravia or on the contrary, and so on through all the Yugoslav plains
and up to Pannonia, that is to say everywhere within the boundaries of a
vast territory, where the landscape used to satisfy the appetite of an
unconscious horizon. In the crepuscular centuries, during the long
prelude of the ethnical actual formations, when the Romanian had no
country, the plane, the holy plane, sanctified by a certain feeling of
destiny, became a second country.” (Ibidem).
In his theoretical attempt to present the spatial horizon of the
unconscious, Blaga leaves an open door for such a space with the
Balkan peoples.
With short periods of separation, the Balkan peoples lived more
or less always together. Under Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine or
Turkish domination, these realities almost always imposed to the Balkan
world the rhythm of unitary respiration. “La Péninsule Balkanique
présente une composition ethnique d’une variété sans pareille en Europe
et même dans le reste du monde. Des couches albanaises, aroumaines et
slaves qui s`étendent jusque au cœur de la Grèce ; une immigration
grecque à travers la Thrace, la Macédoine et l’Epire jusque dans
l’Albanie méridionale et le long de toutes les côtes ; des infiltrations
bulgares dans les plaines de Valachie et des infiltrations roumaines
jusque dans les vallées des Balkans et au centre de la vieille Serbie ; ce
ne sont là que quelques-uns des aspects de cette mosaïque de races que
l’on rencontre aujourd’ hui dans la Péninsule . Dans certaines régionscomme par exemple en Albanie et en Macédoine-on trouve, les uns à
côté des autres, des villages slaves, grecs, aroumains, albanais et turcs.”
(V. Papacostea, “La péninsule balkanique et le problème des études
comparées”, in Balcanica, NC MXLIII, Bucharest, 1989, p. 20).
“Lucian Blaga and Mircea Eliade represent two terms of
reference not only for the Romanian meditation on culture”, but also for
the Balkan one. In his position of literary theoretician, Blaga defines the
literary work as a “cosmoid”, bringing forth decisive points of view for
the study of metaphor. “The poet and the philosopher build his work on
the angular concept of mythical thinking, theoretized in the Daimonion
volume (1926), to be continued later in the famous Trilogy of culture
(1935). Beginning with the geo-political position, Blaga underlines the
20
character of synthesis of the Romanian culture, and, on the other side,
its development into recuperating vaults. Unlike the German culture,
that always had the taste of the “person” and of the “particular”, the
French culture offers itself as a model. If the influence of the French
culture considers itself a ”model”, the German one, says Blaga, is a
catalyser, in the sense that “less the character of a model to imitate and
more the character of an appeal to the own nature, to the own ethnic
spirit”. Moreover, the blooming moments in the Romanian literature are
preceded by the intermittent meetings with the values of the German
culture. In other words, the Mediterranean, solar side meets the Nordic,
nocturne one, in syntheses like Eminescu’s creation, or later Blaga’s.
The two kinds of sensitivity are encountered against the resistant
background of a popular sensitivity. Its geometrical place would be the
archaic village, considered as an eternal centrum mundi, unchanged in
history. This generalization of the function of the atemporal village is
doubled by the poet’s and the philosopher’s interest for myths, partially
explaining its perspective towards the expressionist literature of the
time, as a sign of the “elementary” and “anonymous” forces that Blaga
found by studying expressionism sui-generis in Byzantine and Indian
art.
Blaga facilitated the recognition of the vast zone of interest for
the popular creation that he demonstrated during his activity. In June
1937, on the occasion of his reception speech to the Academy, making a
praise of the Romanian village, he who followed Goethe with the
originary phenomenon, was praising “the village-idea”: “Each village
feels, in the collective consciousness of his sons, a sort of center of the
world, as optically each man places himself in the middle of the world.
Only thus we can explain the large horizons of popular creation in
poetry, in art, in faith, that feeling that takes part in everything, the
precise security of creation, the richness of allusions and of nuances, the
implications of infinite resonance and the unitary spontaneity itself”.
Blaga will come back to this idea of “model-village”, of “village-idea”,
conservatory and impermeable to the modern civilization. Born in a
village, Blaga will always consider it a privileged place: “The village is
situated in the center of the world and is continued by the myth. The
village integrated itself in a cosmic destiny, in a totalitarian way of life,
beyond whose horizon there is nothing”. Together with its folklore, the
village remains the eternal source of the Romanian activity; this is a
conclusion to which Mircea Eliade obeys, spreading his research to the
21
whole European South-East at the same time. I think Blaga isn’t wrong,
but the source of the Romanian creativity has a more realistic
explanation: “La culture folklorique est nourrie de ce que j”ai appelé le
christianisme cosmique, c’est-à-dire un christianisme où l’élément
dogmatiques se devine à peine”. In the same Journal, Mircea Eliade
observed that “only the peasant of Oriental Europe has kept the cosmic
dimension of Christianity” …The peasants from oriental Europe
understood Christianity as a “cosmic liturgy”, this conviction being
nourished by “the feeling of solidarity with cosmic rhythms.” Thus, the
cosmic Christianity is “dominated by the nostalgia after a nature
sanctified even before the presence of divinity.”
This importance of folklore, of myths, of cosmic rhythms,
finally of “village idea”, of “nostalgia after sanctified nature” is present
in all Balkan territories more or less.
A possible approach, to sustain the “common Balkan spiritual
space” would be the anthropological one, an attempt to redeem the
common values and beliefs, as they were exemplified in the behaviours
and in the forms of symbolic expressions in the beginning.
Anthropologists and folklore researchers have examined the traditions
or the norms of peasant populations in different regions of the Balkans
for a long time.
An important example was the research M. E. Durham made at
the beginning of the XXth century, whereby there were common
traditions unifying tribal Christian and Moslem traditions in Albania,
Bosnia and Montenegro. On the other side, there are plenty of
ethnographic data regarding Balkan motifs in the decorative popular art,
in poetry and popular ballads, as well as a great number of common
proverbs. According to these ethnographic testimonies, one can build a
plausible argument in favour of o system of values common to all
Balkans. The veridicity of empirical evidence and methodological
principles shook this common basis, beginning with nationalist
pretentions and counter-pretentions related to the “authentic” ethic
character of popular and symbolic forms of expression.
Being totally tied to Europe, from the geographical point of
view, but being culturally constituted as something else, the Balkans
became the object of several cultural frustrations, political and
ideological, representing the summum of all negative traits and the
reference point that served the construction of the positive image of the
“European” and of the “Occidental”.
22
A part of the above-mentioned region seems to be depicted in
one of the most important Byzantine works, Ana Comnena’s Alexiada.
The chronicle of this work contains what the author calls “The
Description of the Balkans”: “This Haemus is a mountain extending on
a large surface, parallely disposed to Rodope. It starts with the Euxin
Pont and taking a certain distance from the waterfalls, it heads to
Illyricum; although tied by the Adriatic See, it rises again on the
opposite shore, ending in the Hercynic woods. On its both sides there
live numerous and rich families, to the north-the Dacians, to the souththe same Thracians and Macedonian”. If Alexiada, which was
recognized and classified by the literary style of lecture as a work
similar to Homer’s Iliad, might raise doubts about the scientific rigour,
it seems more than a coincidence the fact that Vasile Parvan, a historian
and an archaeologist, is making the following description, similar to the
Byzantine writer’s: “On all the shore of the left Pont, from Byzance to
the Danube’s mouths, also inside the continent as far as the Pannonic
Danube and the Macedonian Axion there lived Thracians, that is to say
from Propontida to Haemus, Odrysic tribes and from Haemus to the
Danube, the immortal Gets”.
Karl Krumbacher wrote that “all the peoples of the Balkan
Peninsula, together with islands spread to the east and to the west and
with a great part of Small Asia, can be classified into a great cultural
unity, whose historic foundation is constituted by the ancient Byzantine
Empire and its cement is the orthodox religion”.
Many personalities of Romanian culture, among whom A.D.
Xenopol, Nicolae Iorga and B.P. Hasdeu will testify abut this millenary
cohabitation in their works. Their data, also the researchers’ who
brought a contribution to clarifying vicinity relations, these all lead to a
spiritual conclusion.
“Living in a tight interdependence, most usually in the same
economic, administrative and political system, the Balkan peoples
acquired, alongside specific differences, the common characters of a
<<great human family>>, and sensitive to all historic manifestations”.
Translation: Rucsandra Dascalu
23
MIHAELA ALBU (ROMANIA)
Spaţii identitare în memorialistica
românească: oraşul. Utopie şi distopie
Pe lângă valoarea de document al unei
vieţi, al unor trăiri şi al unor oameni, memoriile, ca
şi jurnalele literare se constituie peste timp în
valoroase documente ale unor locuri. Fiecare
dintre acestea, descrise memorialistic din
perspectiva prezentului scriiturii, devine un spaţiu
aproape mitic, îmbracă o aură legendară cu certă pecete identitară. La
graniţa dintre spaţiul imaginat şi cel de geografie reală, oraşul descris
de memorialişti cuprinde aşadar nu de puţine ori caracteristici de
utopie. Oraşele/ locurile descrise de memorialişti sunt pentru ei
embleme simbolice ale unei lumi trecute.
În schimb, atunci când sunt consemnate direct în jurnalul scris
zilnic, descrierile de locuri, de oameni şi evenimente reclamă o mai
mare obiectivitate şi nu de puţine ori cel care le consemnează se
detaşează ironic (sau de-a dreptul sarcastic) de realităţile prezentului.
1. Introducere: Literatura memorialistică – depozitară a memoriei
subiective
Memoriile şi jurnalele, în măsura în care îşi bazează relatările pe un
stil literar, chiar dacă li se refuză de către unele voci integrarea în sfera
literaturii, pot constitui un gen specific, raportabil deopotrivă şi la sfera
artistică, dar şi la cea documentară. Din acest punct de vedere a fost
remarcat nu o dată caracterul „elastic” al genului, eteroclit am spune
noi, permisiv cu alte cuvinte, un gen care pare să acorde autorului
libertate deplină.
Sunt cunoscute în literatura universală diferite tipuri de astfel de
scrieri, iar diversitatea lor rezidă nu numai în particularităţile stilistice
ale unui autor sau ale altuia, dar depind şi de epocă, şi de locurile
descrise de aceştia.
Ne vom rezuma în cele ce urmează la literatura română, iar în cazul
său la câteva exemple – alese aproape aleatoriu – care să ne servească în
expunerea şi analiza temei în discuţie.
Dintru început trebuie să remarcăm abundenţa literaturii
memorialistice în România după 1990, aceasta neînsemnând că înainte a
fost cu desăvârşire absentă, ci numai rară. Numărul mare de memorii şi
jurnale tipărite în ultimii douăzeci de ani poate avea dublă referinţă: pe
de o parte este vorba despre libertatea de exprimare – pentru cei ce scriu
24
în prezent –, dar şi libertatea de tipărire a unor opere mai vechi, cele aşa
numite de „sertar”, care nu puteau apărea necenzurate înainte, ca să nu
mai spunem că autorii şi-ar fi riscat libertatea dacă le dădeau spre
publicare (v. Jurnalul lui I.D. Sîrbu sau memoriile lui Petre Pandrea,
printre altele). La impulsul editurilor de a tipări literatură memorialistică
contribuie de bună seamă cererea pieţei, cititorul român fiind în prezent
avid de informaţie reală, preferând-o – credem – şi din acest punct de
vedere literaturii de ficţiune. Ele sunt nu de puţine ori încadrate într-o
categorie literară, iar dimensiunea artistică le-o conferă portretele,
descrierile şi uneori chiar pasajele narative sau cele dialogale, multe
dintre aceste scrieri constituindu-se în reale surprize după 1990. Cităm
un singur exemplu: un nume necunoscut – Gh. Jurjea-Negrileşti – care
a reuşit în anul 2002, cu Troica amintirilor, apărută la editura „Cartea
Românească”, să-i fie considerată „cartea anului”.
În relatări şi însemnări, autorul face apel la memorie, el operând
desigur o selecţie subiectivă. Vom primi astfel evocările, descrierile sau
portretele prin prisma celui care ni le propune, o imagine cât mai
aproape de obiectivitatea ştiinţifică putând fi realizată din coroborarea
mai multor unghiuri (când acestea există).
Dar în măsura în care vom percepe unele opere memorialistice sau
diaristice din perspectivă literară, nici nu mai încape discuţia despre
obiectivitate şi multe astfel de memorii sau jurnale sunt astăzi receptate
în concurenţă cu scrierile ficţionale.
2. Oraşul românesc - între utopie şi distopie
2.1.„Superlativul” memoriei subiective
La graniţa dintre spaţiul imaginat şi cel de geografie reală,
oraşul descris de memorialişti cuprinde nu de puţine ori caracteristici de
utopie. În viziunea lui Virgil Ierunca, scriitorul şi jurnalistul român silit
de istorie să trăiască şi să moară pe pământ străin, „cel mai frumos oraş
din lume” era oraşul natal, Râmnicu Vâlcea. Acesta devenise pentru
exilat spaţiul interzis şi de aceea nu mai poate surprinde că era investit
cu atribute de superlativ absolut. Şi Bucureştiul, ca loc de neatins în
prezentul scriiturii, pare învăluit într-o aură de frumuseţe, devenind
„Bucureşti de vis” (v. Virgil Ierunca, Trecut-au anii, Humanitas 2000,
p. 42) şi trezeşte în diarist mari tristeţi: „Când îmi citează strada
Sărindar, biserica Silvestru – am locuit câţiva ani de studenţie pe aleea
25
Procopie Dumitrescu – mi se împăienjenesc ochii de dor” (Idem, p. 74).
Mai puţin direct, dar cu o aceeaşi semnificaţie, sunt şi notaţiile altei
personalităţi din exilul francez, Monicăi Lovinescu, referirile la spaţii
româneşti sunt permanent inserate printre consemnările despre
întâlnirile cu conaţionali: „Vorbind cu Mihnea la telefon, aflu dintr-o
paranteză că satul de pescari în care se duc scriitorii – Costineşti – e de
fapt Mangiapunar-ul copilăriei mele. Un nume pe care-l uitasem de
treizeci de ani! Deodată mă simt asaltată de Mangalia1” (Monica
Lovinescu, Jurnal. 1985-1988, Humanitas, 2002, p. 48, s.n.).
Multe dintre realităţile insesizabile locuitorului de zi cu zi devin
pentru cel îndepărtat referinţe unice. Astfel, pentru Virgil Ierunca până
şi clopotele „altfel băteau în România” (Ierunca, op. cit., p. 83).
Pe o aceeaşi coordonată a valenţelor utopice se situează – pe
lângă percepţia interdicţiei – cea temporală. O aură aproape legendară o
îmbracă astfel orice loc păstrat în amintire. Cum îndepărtarea în timp
poate provoca în mentalul protagonistului elemente de utopie
determinate de estomparea evenimentelor neplăcute şi supralicitarea
celor pozitive, tot aşa spaţiul poate primi în amintire tuşe îngroşate de
nostalgie. Oraşele/ locurile descrise de memorialişti sunt pentru ei
embleme simbolice ale unei lumi trecute. „Pe atunci Bucureştiul era
oraşul salcâmilor”, evocă Cella Delavrancea timpul şi locul perioadei
copilăriei, natura nedistrusă încă de mâna omului conferind oraşului o
conotaţie edenică. „Vegheau copaci bătrâni în fiecare poartă, legănând
în aroma lor de primăvară casele joase. Curţile erau mari, grădinile
răcoreau sfârşitul zilei”, iar în această confrerie a omului cu natura şi
timpul avea răbdare, de vreme ce, ne spune memorialista, „sub bolta de
viţă se prelungea târziu taifasul.”/.../ „Timp lent şi prielnic discuţiilor.”
Capitala nu depăşea stadiul de oraş provincial, dar totul părea tihnit şi
armonios: „mahalalele se cunoşteau între ele”, „dragostea se învârtea în
ritmul valsului” /.../ „Capitala României păstra în toată pulsaţia sa de
inteligenţă cercetătoare o bunăvoinţă şi o sociabilitate de oraş
provincial, cu strigătele oltenilor, purtând în pas de buiestru, coşurile
pline cu legume şi fructe” (Cella Delavrancea, Dintr-un secol de viaţă,
ed. Eminescu, 1988, p. 7).
1
În La apa Vavilonului va mărturisi însă direct: „Împreună cu Fălticeni şi
Cruşeţ, dar cu o încărcătură simbolică şi mai mare, Mangalia era pentru mine
un centru al lumii, ţinând, în copilărie, loc de Paradis” (La apa Vavilonului, ed.
Humanitas, 2008, p. 62).
26
Mai departe, într-un capitol intitulat direct „Bucureştii de
altădată”, memorialista pune faţă în faţă timpul amintirii cu cel prezent
şi, pe lângă nostalgia „corului de miresme” ale salcâmilor primăvara,
descrierea trece spre realism: „Parcuri bine întreţinute nu existau, afară
de şoseaua Kiseleff, cu aleea ei unică. Mai departe se întindea câmpul în
dezordinea obişnuită locurilor părăginite: gropi, bălării, câte un pom
orfan, cutii de conserve golite, pisici moarte şi mirosul de putregai al
bălţilor” (Idem, p. 87).
2.2. Rememorarea (cu intenţie) obiectivă
Chiar dacă făceam referire mai sus la caracterul subiectiv al
memorialisticii, nu de puţine ori autorul va lua obiectivitatea drept o
condiţie asumată – direct sau indirect exprimată. Desigur, intenţia se
materializează în grade diferite. Cert este însă că, nu de puţine ori,
aceste scrieri cu tentă realistă pot servi drept documentare de reală
valoare pentru urmaşi.
Unii dintre memorialişti au fost istorici sau au trăit şi participat
direct la viaţa politică a ţării, făurind ei înşişi istora.
Un exemplu – Constantin C. Giurescu, care şi-a consemnat
experienţa de viaţă trăită pe fundalul unui timp şi al unor spaţii de la
început de secol 20, acestea din urmă trecute poate altfel în uitare.
Formaţia de istoric se întrevede la fiecare pagină, autorul aşternând pe
hârtie detalii semnificative despre evenimentele, oamenii şi locurile din
viaţa sa. „Împrejurările m-au făcut să cunosc multă lume şi de tot felul,
de la ţăranii şi păstorii satelor până la miniştri, prim-miniştri şi capete
încoronate. Am venit în contact direct cu 18 (optsprezece) prim-miniştri,
începând cu Ionel Brătianu, general Artur Văitoianu, doctor Constantin
Angelescu, Gheorghe Tătărăscu şi Armand Călinescu şi terminând cu
Octavian Goga, patriarhul Miron Cristea, Constantin Argetoianu /.../ Pe
unii dintre ei i-am cunoscut nu numai în ipostaze oficiale, dar şi în afara
acestora, oameni ca atâţia alţii, cu speranţele, durerile şi îndoielile lor”
(Constantin C. Giurescu, Amintiri 1, ed. Sport-Turism, 1976, pp. 5-6).
Toată această galerie de portrete este prezentată, desigur, pe fundalul
istoric, dar şi pe cel al spaţiului de acţiune, Bucureştiul fiind, în
principal, oraşul în care au trăit şi memorialistul, ca şi mare parte dintre
cei prezentaţi.
27
Deşi nu a fost istoric, ci participant activ la istoria unei anumite
perioade a ţării, Constantin Argetoianu a lăsat memorii de mare valoare
documentară, dar şi literară. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea
celor de ieri şi-a intitulat autorul amintirile scrise la maturitate, cu
intenţia declarată de a lăsa documente urmaşilor despre o lume trecută şi
care nu trebuie dată uitării de vreme ce este o verigă a devenirii noastre
ca stat şi naţiune. Astfel, evenimentele la care a fost martor sau la care,
prin funcţiile sale politice, a participat devin momente de referinţă
pentru cunoaşterea istoriei. La acestea se adaugă o galerie impresionantă
de personaje reale, unele de notorietate, altele mai puţin cunoscute.
Cercul larg de rude şi cunoscuţi îi prilejuieşte memorialistului să
creioneze figuri memorabile, iar prin toate acestea, puse împreună, să
alcătuiască portretul unei lumi pe care altfel o cunoşteam prea puţin, o
lume – la început –„domoală şi patriarhală” (op. cit.,p. 41).
Astfel, pe lângă figuri creionate cu un talent desăvârşit, pe lângă
evocarea multor evenimente la care a fost martor, cartea lui Argetoianu
devine şi o sursă documentară privind istoria, topografia, arhitectura,
viaţa mondenă, dar şi cea culturală a unor oraşe – aşa cum le-a cunoscut
sau cum i-au fost descrise de părinţi. Din episoade disparate, aceste
„amintiri” sunt surse inestimabile pentru cei de astăzi. Printre oraşele
româneşti descrise, alegem să exemplificăm cu Craiova şiTurnu
Severin.
Astfel, despre Turnu Severin aflăm că în 1878 „era încă un oraş
nou-nouţ, din vremea lui Kisselef şi toată mişcarea judeţului era încă
împărţită între noua aşezare şi vechiul târg al Cerneţilor ce nu decăzuse
încă. Pictorul italian Preziosi, în albumul călătoriei sale din 1869, dă
chiar o mult mai mare atenţie Cerneţilor decât Severinului. Severinul nu
fusese încă ilustrat prin activitatea lui Ilariu Izvoranu şi nu era nici
Mecca averescanilor, nici scena isprăvilor lui Richard Franasovici.
Fusese întemeiat printr-un ofis al generalului Kisselef din 1832, prin
care se alocase o sumă pentru construirea unei carantine, unei puşcării şi
unei biserici. Banii au fost însă irosiţi şi, trimiţându-se o anchetă de la
Bucureşti, s-au înregistrat declaraţiile logofătului Gheorghe care
destăinuia că banii fuseseră mâncaţi de Pană Gârdăreanu care, în loc de
biserică, de puşcărie şi de carantină, construise o cârciumă la drumul
mare şi tocase banii care prisosiseră. Severinul a fost în realitate
întemeiat ceva mai târziu, după planurile arhitectului francez Xavier de
Villacros, pe moşia Bălaşei Fratoştiţeanu şi a fratelui ei Iancu
28
Severineanu. La ieşirea din Severin spre Craiova, la colţ cu şoseaua care
merge spre Cerneţi se află încă o moară, ultim vestigiu al proprietăţii
Bălaşei Fratoştiţeanu” (op. cit., pp. 31-32).
Despre Craiova, oraşul natal al memorialistului, ne spune că
între perioada copilăriei şi cea a prezentului scrierii „şi-a schimbat cu
totul nu numai aspectul, dar şi sufletul” (op. cit., p. 35). Înainte, chiar
dacă se afla din punct de vedere al modernizării încă în faza de început
şi chiar dacă „numai uliţele din Centrul Craiovei erau pavate cu
bolovani mari de râu şi scursorile apelor se făceau pe mijlocul străzilor,
aduse în formă de albie”, „uliţele erau numai şoseluite, pline de hopuri”
şi „pe vreme de ploaie, când trecea o trăsură, mocirla era zvârlită până
pe pereţii caselor, iar vara pe secetă, lumea trăia într-un nor de praf”, iar
„în afară de casele boiereşti şi de câteva case de negustori înstăriţi, nu
era niciun edificiu însemnat, lăsând bisericile la o parte” şi „numai
Liceul avea localul său propriu, o casă cu un cat peste un parter mâncat
de umezeală”, Teatrul, „clădit de Teodorini, deşi simpatic ca arhitectură
internă, era mic, fără aparenţă şi avea pe dinafară aspectul unui grajd”
(p. 35), totuşi „viaţa socială era dintre cele mai animate”.
În Craiova trăiau vechi şi importante familii boiereşti cu mare
apetenţă către cultură. Aici, povesteşte memorialistul, a fiinţat chiar un
cenaclu literar condus de un italian, profesor de pian, Romeo Ratti,
nepot de papă, cenaclu frecventat şi de mama lui Argetoianu, precum şi
de alte tinere de familie bună.
În schimb, Craiova din prezentul scrierii memoriilor (1930), nu
are relatări tocmai favorabile. Ironia (cu accente de sarcasm) referitoare
la distanţa dintre aparenţă şi esenţă, dintre pretenţie şi realitate se
îngemănează în afirmaţii, din nou, cu rememorarea în termeni nostalgici
a vechii lumi apuse:
„Craiova are şi azi pretenţia de a fi un centru, de a fi un focar
cultural. Se poate să fie aşa; sutele de vibrioni profesionişti ce mişună în
bulionul de cultură al atâtor şcoli – înmulţite în ultimele decenii fără
socoteală – poate că dau unora iluzia unei vieţi intelectuale. În tot cazul,
această viaţă e de ordin artificial. Până în anii 1870, cu mult mai puţine
şcoli şi societăţi sau reviste culturale, Craiova a fost un centru real, o
capitală de regiune – capitala Olteniei (p. 36).
Alte oraşe despre care aflăm amănunte interesante sunt Focşani
şi, bineînţeles, Bucureşti. Şi în cazul acestora, ca şi mai înainte, niciunul
29
nu este prezentat însă fără a insera şi figuri ale unor locuitori care le-au
dat personalitate sau care le-au influenţat istoria, precum şi numeroase
date asupra administrării lor.
În amintirile lui Jurjea-Negrileşti descrierea locurilor în care a
trăit sau prin care a trecut devine prilej mai mult pentru descrierea
oamenilor cu care autorul-narator s-a intersectat în viaţă. Interesul se
focalizează pe evenimente şi pe reacţiile protagoniştilor acestor
evenimente. Detaliile descriptive, itinerariile traversate sunt de regulă
succinte. Cu un Fiat „nou-nouţ de 12 cai putere” care avusese preţul de
„12.500 lei, adică 4 kg. de aur”, devenind „un instrument de prestigiu”,
consulul rus de la Galaţi, bunicul memorialistului, făcea plimbări zilnice
pe „strada Domnească până la statuia lui Costache Negri şi înapoi, până
la Grădina Publică”. Informaţiile privind topografia centrului oraşului se
întregesc apoi cu unele legate de obiceiurile protipendadei: „Plimbarea
putea fi repetată de trei ori, nu mai mult! Toată lumea ştia asta.../.../
După o singură raită de paradă, am văzut şi am fost văzuţi de toată
protipendada Galaţiului: vreo douăzeci de automobile şi cam tot atâtea
echipaje particulare” (Gh. Jurjea-Negrileşti, Troica amintirilor. Sub
patru regi, ed. Cartea Românească, 2001, p. 37). Referirile desriptive la
alte oraşe, cum ar fi Constanţa, Sinaia, Mangalia ş.a. sunt de asemenea
foarte succinte. Excepţie face Bucureştiul, iar din capitală memorialistul
surprinde locuri de care sunt legate evenimente mai mult sau mai puţin
personale.
Despre Bucureştiul anilor 1900 aflăm, de exemplu, că avea
fortificaţii care, „după cum se ştia din manualele şcolare, erau printre
cele mai moderne din Europa” (p. 377).
O relatare mai amănunţită o aflăm despre restaurantul „Floarea
Soarelui”, distrus de bombardamentul din 1942. Descrierea clădirii este
legată de istoria construirii ei:
„Prin 1942, puţin înainte sau după Stalingrad, cetăţenii
Bucureştiului au văzut cum în plin centru se ridică o clădire destul de
ciudată. Toată din bârne de brad frumos încheiate, construcţia evoca un
pavilion tirolez, dar aducea şi a izbă rusească. Mă rog, aşa cum era
plasat, acel restaurant al Florii Soarelui – că despre el e vorba – se
potrivea ca nuca în perete. Avea spatele proptit în calcanul hotelului
Athenee Palace, iar împrejur străjuiau numai blocuri moderne. Cui
întreba despre ce e vorba, i se răspundea răstit că va vedea la timp. De
fapt, era rezultatul unui mare scandal” (Idem, p. 328).
30
Amănunte de interes pentru locuitorii de astăzi despre diversele
construcţii din Bucureşti întâlnim frecvent în paginile acestor „amintiri”.
Un exemplu este cea cu care se deschide capitolul intitulat „Pasajul”:
„Cam spre sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea, nişte arhitecţi au
proiectat un pasaj care să lege Banca Naţională de Calea Victoriei. A
fost prevăzut cu multe coloane, cariatide şi alte bibiluri, care să
amintească de Viena, Odessa sau chiar Paris. Era acoperit cu sticlă, aşa
că damele care făceau trotuarul pe Regală veneau aici când ploua.”
(Idem, p. 393).
În legătură cu figuri importante – politice sau culturale – aflăm
detalii care le întregesc personalitatea, chiar dacă punctul de vedere este
şi unul subiectiv. O exemplificare specială ar fi capitolul „Hanul cu tei”
din Troica amintirilor, adevărate pagini narative, în care protagonişti
sunt scriitorul Ion Vinea, ziaristul Pamfil Şeicaru şi scriitorul (politician
liberal) Mihail Fărcăşanu.
2.3 Distopia prezentului
Ca specie a a literaturii memorialistice, jurnalul, însemnările
zilnice făcute, cum se spune „la cald”, pot fi considerate şi surse de mai
mare încredere documentară. De multe ori cele relatate sunt văzute
printr-un fel de lentilă care măreşte mai ales umbrele, defectele.
Un exemplu dintre cele mai elocvente în literatura noastră este
ceea ce I. D. Sîrbu găsise nimerit să intituleze Jurnalul unui jurnalist
fără jurnal. Ca şi romanele apărute postum, ca şi corespondenţa sa,
literatura de sertar a lui I.D. Sîrbu a constituit o adevărată revelaţie după
1990. Şi în consemnările din Jurnal, ca şi în scrisorile către Ion
Negoiţescu, Virgil Nemoianu ori Mariana Şora, scriitorul este un martor
al absurdului, absurd despre care, comentându-i însemnările amare, un
contemporan (şi vremelnic concitadin), scriitorul Marin Sorescu,
caracteriza vremurile în care „absurdul cu pâinea ne-a fost ani de zile
singura sursă de calorii” (v. Postfaţa la Jurnalul unui jurnalist ...., ed.
Scrisul Românesc”, Craiova, 1996, p. 344). Nu de puţine ori, acest
absurd – prezentat în registru ironic, dar cel mai adesea într-unul tragic
– devine o emblemă a oraşului în care i se stabilise domiciliu
„obligator”. Astfel, Craiova va purta permanent un supranume –
„Isarlâk”. Din succesiunea însemnărilor desprindem din loc în loc
referiri – în termeni pe palierele ironiei duse până la sarcasm – la oraşul
31
„bizar”, populat de „lichelele patriotice” (vol. I, p. 13), la „capitala
ciocoismului eroic şi revoluţionar” (vol. II, p. 157), acel oraş văzut ca
„cea mai cumplită şi cea mai absurdă” puşcărie, din care „evadarea e
imposibilă” (vol. II, p. 124). Acest „sat universitar”, cum este numit
peiorativ, este chiar mai mult decât atât pentru membrul fondator al
Cercului Literar de la Sibiu, pentru cel care fusese cândva asistentul
profesorului Liviu Rusu la Catedra de estetică şi critică literară a
universităţii clujene. Oraşul este „o broscărie de lucrături şi patimi fără
sfârşit şi fără leac” (vol. II, p. 28).
Pe lângă oameni, nici clădirile oraşului, blocurile (cele
construite în prezentul scriitorii) nu sunt cruţate de dezaprobarea
diaristului de vreme ce toate reprezintă „încazarmări calculate”, „peşteră
la etaj” şi, aşa cum ne spune că îi explică soţiei, „nu orice casă e acasă”
(vol. II, p. 205). Mai mult. Chiar una dintre străzile principale ale
oraşului, construită din temelii după cutremurul din 1977, Calea Unirii,
îi pare derizorie, ca „un decor de teatru pentru o nuntă a unui Figaro
balcanic, în uniformă şi înarmat. Stilul Beirut, îmi spune un juvete vesel,
dar deştept, arătându-mi balcoanele care sunt ideale cuiburi de
mitraliere.”
Prin contrast, Clujul tinereţii va fi permanent în amintire şi
numit „Clujul meu”. Tot ca un exilat, dar în propria ţară, spaţiul idilizat
– şi interzis acum – va fi cel în care-şi petrecuse studenţia şi primii ani
de după ea. Clujul, supranumit Genopolis în proză, va căpăta în viziunea
celui îndepărtat dimensiuni aproape utopice. Acesta face parte parcă din
altă lume (şi temporal, desigur, dar şi prin dimensiunea umană). Acolo,
parcă şi numele de intelectuali enumerate dau o dimensiune culturală
înaltă locului, iar posesivul pe care-l alătură numelui oraşului
evidenţiază apartenenţa declarată a memorialistului la acest spaţiu, la
acel timp şi mai ales la această lume pierdută: „În Clujul meu trăiau:
Blaga, D.D. Roşca, Liviu Rusu, Ghibu, Speranţia, N. Mărgineanu,
Bezdechi, Naum, Silviu Dragomir, Lupaş, Haţieganu, Borza şi mulţi
alţii” (vol. II, p. 19, s.n.). Mai departe, „Transilvania mea” extinde
caracterisiticile, aureolate de nostalgie, la întreaga regiune aparţinătoare
la Mittel-Europa, pusă în contrast cu zona în care e obligat să trăiască şi
în care nu se regăseşte, zonă „rămasă tributară spiritului bizantin,
fanariot, balcanic” (Idem, p. 149).
32
Concluzii
Din cele câteva exemple, luate aproape la întâmplare, se poate
desprinde ideea că, pe lângă valoarea de document al unei vieţi, al unor
trăiri şi al unor oameni, memoriile, ca şi jurnalele literare se constituie
peste timp în valoroase documente ale unor locuri. Fiecare dintre
acestea, descrise memorialistic din perspectiva prezentului scriiturii,
devine un spaţiu aproape mitic, îmbracă o aură legendară cu certă pecete
identitară. În schimb, atunci când sunt consemnate direct în jurnalul
scris zilnic, descrierile de locuri, de oameni şi evenimente reclamă o mai
mare obiectivitate şi nu de puţine ori cel care le consemnează se
detaşează ironic (sau de-a dreptul sarcastic) de realităţile prezentului.
33
Identifying Places in the Romanian Memoirism - the City. Utopia
and Dystopia
Besides the documentary value of one’s life, of one’s experiences
and feelings, and of some people, the memoirs, as well as the literary
diaries, become, in time, valuable documents for certain places. Each of
these places, described from the perspective of the present of the writing,
becomes an almost mythical space, and obtains a legendary aura
bearing a clear identifying stamp. At the border between the imaginary
space and the real geographical one, the city the author describes often
comprises, therefore, utopian features. The described cities/ places
represent, for the authors, symbolic emblems of a past world.
Nevertheless, when presented directly, in a daily diary, the
descriptions of places, people, and events require an ampler objectivity
and, quite often, the author ironically (or even sarcastically) detaches
himself from the reality of the present time.
1. Introduction: The memoirist literature – a subjective memory
keeper
The memoirs and diaries as literature, even if some critics deny their
literary quality, can represent a specific genre, includable both in the
artistic and in the documentary area. From this point of view, the
“elastic” feature of this genre has been noticed. We would call it
heteroclite or, in other words, permissive – a genre that seems to offer
the author a total liberty of expression.
Several types of such writings have been ascertained in the world
literature, and their diversity lays not only in the authors’ stylistic
particularities, but it also depends on the epochs and places they
describe.
We will refer only to the Romanian literature using just a few
examples – chosen almost randomly – to serve us in presenting and
analyzing the theme we propose.
We will notice first the abundance of the memoirist literature in
Romania after 1990; this does not mean that it was totally absent before,
it was only rare. The great number of memoirs and diaries published in
the last twenty years could have two explanations: on the one hand, we
can mention the liberty of expression - for those who write nowadays –
but also the liberty of publishing older works, the so-called “drawer
kept” works, which could not be published without censorship, not to
mention that the authors could risk their freedom if they had them
34
published (such as I. D. Sirbu’s Diary and Petre Pandrea’s memoirs).
The publishing houses’ impulse to publish this type of literature is, of
course, caused by the market request as long as the Romanian readers
are, at present, more interested in real information than in fiction. This
type of works are often included in a literary category, and their literary
dimension means portraits, descriptions, and sometimes even narrative
fragments or dialogues – many writings have represented real surprises
after 1990. We will give only one example: an unknown name – Gh.
Jurjea-Negrilesti – whose book, Troica amintirilor (The Memories
Troika), published by “Cartea Romaneasca” Publishing House, was
considered “the book of the year” in 2002.
In his stories and notes, the author uses his memory making of
course a subjective selection. We perceive therefore the evocations,
descriptions and portraits through the author’s view, and the scientific
objectivity is possible by the corroboration of several angles (when they
exist). Nevertheless, if judged as literary works, the memoirs or diaries
no longer imply objectivity and many of them are considered fictional
literature.
2. The Romanian town – between utopia and dystopia
2.1 The subjective memory’s “superlative”
At the border between the imaginary space and the geographic one,
the town, as described by the memoirists, often comprises utopian
features. In Virgil Ierunca’s view - the writer and journalist forced by
history to live and die abroad - “the most beautiful town in the world”
was his native town, Ramnicu-Valcea. For the exiled, it had become the
forbidden land, and thus it is not surprising that it was appreciated in the
absolute superlative. Bucharest also - an untouchable place in the
present time of the writing - seems to be covered by a hallo of beauty,
and becomes “a dream Bucharest” (Virgil Ierunca, Trecut-au anii (Years
Have Passed), Humanitas Publishing House, 2000, p. 42), rendering the
memoirist very sad: “When they cite the Sarindar street, the Silvestru
church – I lived as a student in the Pricopie Dumitrescu alley – my eyes
blur with homesickness” (Idem, p.74). Less direct, yet bearing the same
significance, are the notes of another personality exiled in France,
Monica Lovinescu, as her references to Romanian places are
permanently inserted in the presentations of her meetings with
35
conational people: “Talking with Mihnea on the phone, I have learned
that the fishermen village where the writers would go – Costinesti – is in
fact my chilhood’s Mangiapunar. A name that I had forgotten for thirty
years! Suddenly, I feel invaded by Mangalia”1. (Monica Lovinescu,
Jurnal. 1985-1988, Humanitas Publishing House, 2002, p. 48).
Many of the things unnoticed by the permanent inhabitant, become
unique references for the one who left. Thus, for Virgil Ierunca, even
the bells “would toll differently in Romania”. (Ierunca, p. 83).
On the same level of utopian valences there is, besides the
perception of the interdiction, the temporal one. An almost legendary
aura dresses thus any place the memory keeps. As the distance in time
can bring utopian elements caused by the fading of the unpleasant
events and the enhancement of the positive ones in the protagonist’s
mind, the place can be remembered in touches thickened with nostalgia.
The towns/ places described are, for the memoirists, symbolic emblems
of a past world. “Back then Bucharest was the city of locust trees” Cella Delavrancea evokes the time and place of her childhood, the
nature undestroyed by man conferring an Eden-like connotation on the
city. “The old trees were guarding by every gate, swinging the low
houses in their vernal fragrance. The yards were large, the gardens
would bring coolness to the end of the day.” And, in this brotherhood of
man and nature, time itself was patient, as long as, says the memoirist,
“under the vine canopy, the talking prolonged.” /…/ “Time was slow
and favorable to talking.” The capital city was like a provincial town
and everything was calm and harmonious: “the inhabitants of the
outskirts knew one another”, “love was swirling in the rhythm of the
waltz” /…/ “In all its inquisitive pulsating intelligence, the capital of
Romania would keep the kindness and sociability of a provincial town,
with the cries of the Oltenians who carried their baskets of vegetable
and fruits in an ambling pace” (Cella Delavrancea, Dintr-un secol de
viaţă (From a Century Life), Eminescu Publishing House, 1988, p.7).
In the chapter “The Bucharest of old times”, the memoirist
confronts the time of the memory and the present time, and, besides the
nostalgia “of the fragrances chorus” of the locust trees in springtime, the
1
Yet, in La apa Vavilonului (By the Vavilon River) the confession is direct:
”Together with Falticeni and Cruset, more symbolic yet, Mangalia was for me a
centre of the world representing the Eden of my childhood.(La apa Vavilonului,
Humanitas Publishing House, 2008, p. 62)
36
description becomes realistic:” There were no well kept parks excepting
the Kiseleff road and its unique alley. Farther it was the plain with the
usual mess in the deserted places: holes, weeds, some orphan tree,
empty cans, dead cats and the rot marshy smell.” (Idem, p.87)
2.2. The (intended) objective remembrance
Even if we mentioned above the subjective feature of the memoirs,
the author often considers objectivity to be a condition directly or
indirectly expressed. Of course, the intention is materialized in different
degrees. It is certain that these realistic writings can serve as valuable
documentaries for the descendants.
Some memoirists were historians or lived and participated directly
in the political life making the history themselves.
An example is Constantin C. Giurescu who wrote about his life
experience on the background of the time and space of the beginning of
the 20th century which could have been forgotten otherwise. His
historian training can be noticed at every page as the author gives
significant details about events, places, and people in his life. “The
circumstances made me know many and different people, from peasants
and shepherds to ministers, prime-ministers and monarchs. I have met
18 (eighteen) prime-ministers, starting with Ionel Bratianu, General
Artur Vaitoianu, Dr. Constantin Angelescu, Gheorghe Tatarascu and
Armand Calinescu and finally Octavian Goga, the patriarch Miron
Cristea, Constantin Argetoianu /…/ I met some of them not only in
official circumstances, but also as common people with their hopes,
sufferings and doubts” (Constantin C. Giurescu, Memorii (Memories) I,
Sport-Turism Publishing House, 1976, pp. 5-6). This entire portrait
gallery is presented of course on its historical background but also on
the spatial one, as Bucharest is, in the first place, the city where the
memoirist, as well as most of those he presented, lived.
Although Constantin Argetoianu was not a historian but an active
participant in our country’s history during a certain period of time, he
left valuable documentary and literary memories. Pentru cei de mâine.
Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri (To Those of Tomorrow. Memories
from the Time of Those of Yesterday) was the author’s title for his
writings of old age with the stated intention of leaving them as
documents to his descendants about a past world which must not be
forgotten as long as it is a link to our becoming a state and a nation.
37
Thus, the events he witnessed or participated within, due to his political
positions, represent moments of reference in learning the history. This
adds to an impressive gallery of real characters, some of them notorious,
others less known. The big circle of relatives and acquaintances enables
the memoirist to sketch memorable characters and to create through
them the portrait of a world little known otherwise which – in the
beginning – was “slow and patriarchal” (p. 41).
Thus, besides the characters shaped with an exquisite talent, besides
evoking the many events he witnessed, Argetoianu’s book becomes a
documentary source of history, topography, architecture, the fashionable
and also the cultural life of different towns – as he knew them or as they
were described to him by his parents. These “memories” of disparate
episodes are inestimable sources for us. From the towns described, we
choose to exemplify Craiova and Turnu-Severin.
Thus, we learn that, in 1878,Turnu Severin “was still a brand new
town, from Kisselef time, and all the county’s movement was shared
between the new settlement and the old place of Cerneti which had not
declined yet. In the album of his travel of 1869, the Italian painter
Preziosi is more interested in Cerneti than in Severin. Severin was not
yet illustrated by Ilariu Izvoranu’s activity, neither was it the
Averescani’s Mecca, nor the scene of Richard Frasnovici’s feats. It had
been founded through an act of General Kisselef, in 1832, when a sum
of money was destined to the building of a quarantine station, a prison
and a church. Yet, the money was instead wasted and an investigation
was sent from Bucharest – the registered statements of chancellor
Gheorghe unveiled that the money had been taken by Pana Gardareanu
who had built a pub instead of the quarantine, church and prison and had
spent the rest of the money. The town of Severin was in fact founded
later and planned by the French architect Xavier de Villacros on Balasa
Fratostiteanu and her brother Iancu Severineanu’s property. On the road
from Severin to Craiova, at the crossroads to Cerneti, there still exist a
mill which is a last vestige of Balasa Fratostiteanu’s property.” (p. 3132)
About Craiova the memoirist says that, between the time of his
childhood and the present of his writing, his native town “changed
totally not only its image, but also its soul (p. 35). Before that, even if it
was at the beginning of its modernization, and even if “only the paths in
the centre of Craiova were river rock paved and the waters ran in the
38
middle of the streets built as river beds”, “the paths were full of holes”
and “the mud was splashed on the walls of the houses by the carriages
when it was rainy, while, in summer, people would live in a cloud of
dust”, and “besides the boyars, and some rich merchants’ houses, there
was no important edifice, apart from the churches”, and only “the high
school had its own building – with one storey and a ground floor rotten
with mustiness”; the Theatre, “built by Teodorini, although nice in its
interior architecture, was small, dull and similar to a stable in its
exterior, yet, “the social life was very animated.” (p. 35)
Some old and important boyar families, very interested in
culture, were living in Craiova. There was even a literary circle here,
which was run by an Italian piano teacher, Romeo Ratti, a Pope nephew,
and Argetoianu’s mother would attend this circle, the same as other
young noble women.
On the contrary, the mentions about the Craiova of the present
of the writing (1930) are not very pleasant. The irony (almost sarcasm)
in the statements about the distance between appearance and essence,
between pretension and reality, meet again the nostalgic remembrance
of older times: “Even today, Craiova pretends to be a cultural centre. It
might be so; the hundreds of professional vibrions in the cultural soup of
so many schools – irrationally increased in number lately – may give the
illusion of an intellectual life to some. Anyway, this life is artificial.
Until the 1870’ Craiova, although having much lesser schools and
cultural associations and magazines, was a real centre, a regional capital
– the capital of Oltenia. (p. 36)
We learn interesting details also about other cities such as
Focsani and, of course, Bucharest. They are presented, like before, by
inserting mentions about their inhabitants who gave them personality or
influenced their history, as well as a lot of information about their
administration.
Jurjea-Negrilesti’s memories rather represent an opportunity to
describe people the author met than places he lived in or visited. His
interest is focused on events and on the reactions of the participants to
those events. The descriptive details or the itineraries are usually
succinct. The Russian Counsellor in Galati, the memoirist’s grandfather,
used to drive daily “a brand new Fiat 12 HP” as “a prestige means”, that
39
cost “12, 500 Lei, namely 4 kg gold”, “along the Domneasca street, to
the statue of Costache Negri and back, to the Public Gardens”. The
information about the topography of the town centre is then followed by
the information on the habits of the nobility: “The drive could be
repeated three times, no more! Everybody knew that. /…/ After only
one parade round, we saw and were seen by all the nobility in Galati:
about twenty cars and a similar number of private carriages.” (Gh.
Jurjea-Negrilesti, Troica amintirilor. Sub patru regi (The Memories
Troika. Under Four Kings), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House,
2001, p. 37). The descriptive references to other towns, such as
Constanta, Sinaia, Mangalia, etc, are also very succinct. Bucharest is an
exception, and the memoirist talks about places that are linked to more
or less personal events.
For instance, we learn that the fortifications of Bucharest in the
1900’s, “as stated in the school text books, were among the most
modern in Europe.” (p.377)
A description of the “Sunflower” restaurant, destroyed in the
1942 bombardment, presents in detail the history of its building:
Around 1942, little before or after Stalingrad, the inhabitants of
Bucharest saw how a rather strange building was raised right in the
centre. Built of fir beams beautifully fixed, the construction evoked a
Tyrolese pavilion but looked also like a Russian hut. Anyway, as it
stood, that Sunflower restaurant was placed neither here nor there, at the
back of the Athenee Palace Hotel, and surrounded by modern blocks all
around. If someone asked what it was, the rough answer was that
everybody would see in proper time. In fact, it was the result of a major
scandal. (Idem, p.328)
There are, in these “memoirs”, many details – of interest for the
inhabitants of today – about different buildings in Bucharest. One of
them for instance is that one that opens the chapter “Passage”:
Around the end of the 19th century some architects designed a
passage
between the National Bank and the Victoria’s Road. There
were, in the design, many columns, Caryatids and other decorations
meant to evoke Vienna, Odessa or even Paris. It was covered with glass,
so, the easy women on the Regala Street would go there when it was
raining. (Idem, p. 393)
Regarding some important political or cultural personalities, we
learn details about their personality, even if the point of view includes
40
also subjectivity. A special example could be “The Linden Trees Inn” in
The Memories Troika, a real narrative passage, whose protagonists are
the writer Ion Vinea, the journalist Pamfil Seicaru and the liberal
politician Mihai Farcasanu.
2.3. The dystopia of the present
As a species of the memoirist literature, the diary, namely the daily
notes taken, as it were, “on the spot”, can be considered also very
credible documentary sources. The facts are often presented as if seen
through a magnifying lens that enlarges especially the shadows, the
defects.
One of the most eloquent examples in our literature is I. D. Sirbu’s
title of Jurnalul unui journalist fara jurnal (The Diary of a Diarist
without a Diary). The same as his posthumous novels, the same as his
correspondence, I. D. Sirbu’s drawer-kept literature has represented
quite a revelation after 1990. In his notes in the Diary, the same as in his
letters to Ion Negoitescu, Virgil Nemoianu or Mariana Sora, the writer
is a witness of the absurd that his contemporary (and temporarily his
townsman), the writer Marin Sorescu, commenting his bitter notes,
characterized as the time in which “the absurd and bread were, for long
years, our only source of calories” (Afterword, Jurnalul unui journalist
…, Scrisul Romanesc Publishing House, Craiova, 1996, p. 344). Quite
often, this absurd – presented ironically and often tragically – becomes
an emblem of the town that had been his “compulsory” domicile. Thus,
Craiova is always named also “Hisarlik”. There is, from time to time, a
sequence of ironic to sarcastic references to the “bizarre” town
populated with “patriotic shabby fellows” (vol. I, p. 13), or to “the
capital of the heroic and revolutionary upstarts” (vol. II, p. 157); the
town is seen as “the most terrible and most absurd” prison from where it
was impossible to escape (vol. II, p. 124). This “university village” (as
he pejoratively named it) is even more than that, for the founding
member of the Literary Circle in Sibiu, for the former Prof. Liviu
Rusu’s assistant at the Aesthetics and Literary Criticism Department of
the University of Cluj. The town is “a sink of endless and incurable
machinations and passions” (vol. II, p. 28).
Not only the people, but also the buildings of the town, the blocks
(built during the writer’s time) are deprecated by the diarist as long as
all they represent “calculated barracks”, “a storied cave” and - as he
41
says he explained to his wife - “not any house is at home” (vol. II, p.
205). Moreover, one of the main streets of the town, totally rebuilt after
the earthquake of 1977, Unirii road, seems derisory to him, like a
“theatre set of a Balkan Figaro in uniform and armed. The Beirut style,
tells me a cheerful and smart Oltenian, pointing to the balconies that are
ideal for machine guns.”
By contrast, the Cluj of his youth is always kept in his memory and
called “my Cluj”. Similar to an exile, but in his own country, the
idealized – and forbidden – area is that of his student life where he also
spent a few years after graduation. Cluj, called Genopolis in his prose,
becomes almost utopian for the distant one. It seems to belong to
another world (both in time and in what regards the people there). Even
the names of the intellectuals there seem to confer a cultural dimension
to that space, and the possessive attached to the name of the town
underlines the memoirist’s affiliation to that space, that time, and
especially that lost world: “In my Cluj, there lived: Blaga, D. D. Rosca,
Liviu Rusu, Ghibu, Sperantia, N. Margineanu, Bezdechi, Naum, Silviu
Dragomir, Lupas, Hatieganu, Borza and many others (vol. II, p. 9).
Further on, “my Transilvania” extends the nostalgic features to the
whole region, part of the Mittel-Europa, as contrasted with the area
where he was forced to live and where he never could adapt, an area
“left under the influence of the byzantine, Phanariote, Balkan spirit
(Idem, p. 149).
Conclusions
From the few examples, taken almost randomly, one can draw the
idea that, besides the documentary value of one’s life, of one’s
experiences and feelings, and of some people, the memoirs, as well as
the literary diaries, become, in time, valuable documents for certain
places. Each of these spaces, described from the perspective of the
present of the writing, becomes an almost mythical space, and obtains a
legendary aura bearing a clear identifying stamp. Nevertheless, when
presented directly, in a daily diary, the descriptions of places, people,
and events require an ampler objectivity and, quite often, the author
ironically (or even sarcastically) detaches himself from the reality of the
present time.
(Translation: Iolanda Manescu)
42
MARIA ALEXE (ROMANIA)
Nastratin Hogea – O imagine balcanică a
înţeleptului rătăcitor
În literatura medievală a Occidentului
există un personaj ce îşi impresionează cititorii
prin tristeţea sa dar şi prin simţul umorului:
Înţeleptul rătăcitor. Acestuia îi corespunde în
literatura balcanică, supravieţuind până în
perioada contemporană, binecunoscutul Nastratin Hogea. El este un
personaj de origine orientală, provenit din folclorul turcesc, de unde s-a
răspândit în toată zona Balcanilor, devenind reprezentativ pentru
literatura regiunii. Este o emblemă a mentalităţii balcanice, o imagine a
amestecului de tragic, grotesc şi satiric ce caracterizează proza
balcanică.
Reflexele personajului în postmodernism sunt imagini extrem de
originale şi dovedesc actualitatea sa şi unitatea prozei din această arie
geografică.
Adeseori s-a vorbit despre civilizaţia balcanică ca despre o
civilizaţie rurală cu forme specifice de manifestare îndeosebi la nivelul
comunicării orale. Este o viziune incompletă şi simplificatoare care
ignoră istoria zonei. În realitate, există o civilizaţie aulică de sursă
bizantină ce supravieţuieşte în forme mai mult sau mai puţin rafinate
până în acel ev mediu întârziat, caracteristic zonei balcanice. Pe
Nastratinit Hogea, ca personaj literar, îl găsim peste tot în Balcani,
generat de lumea multietnică şi multi-religioasă a oraşelor balcanice. În
turcă, el se numeşte Nasreddin Hoca, în bosniacă – Nasrudin hodža, în
arabă şi persană numele lui se traduce ca Victoria Credinţei, în albaneză
devine Nostradin Hoxha sau numai Nostradini; el se regăseşte în cultura
azeră ca Molla Nəsrəddin sau la uzbeci ca Nasriddin Afandi ori numai
Afandi. Tradiţia identifică personajul literar cu un personaj real, sol al
cetăţii Ak-Sikir din Anatolia ce salvează cetatea prin istorisirile pe care i
le spune lui Timur-Lenk, fie cu un învăţat contemporan despre care nu
au rămas date biografice certe şi care a trăit în cetatea Konya în Evul,
probabil
în
secolul
al
XIII-ea
(cf.
http://ro.wikisource.org/istorisirile_lui_Nastratin_Hogea).
Înrudit cu Bufonul shakespearian, el este un personaj comun
literaturilor din mai multe ţări balcanice, regăsibil în forma sa aproape
folclorică la Anton Pann, dar şi la modernul Ion Barbu, în al cărui ciclu
43
despre cetatea imaginară Isarlâk sunt potenţate valorile sale simbolice.
Aşa cum observa Cornel Regman, „Nastratin e mai mult decât un
personaj, el este o manieră de a vorbi despre personaj, de a-l oferi gurii
târgului sau a-l face să se dea însuşi în stambă, într-un cuvânt, de a-l
prezenta publicului aşa cum circarii îşi etalează inventarul de
curiozităţi”. Criticul vorbeşte despre o atitudine specifică pe care o
denumeşte „nastratinism” şi pe care, în acelaşi articol, o defineşte astfel:
„Înainte de a fi orice altceva nastratinismul e o modalitate a indiscreţiei
sociale (satul, târgul, mahalaua fiind instanţele ei) faţă cu insul purtat în
faţa grupului să exemplifice prin povestea sa vorba” (Cornel Regman,
Premii pentru urmaşii lui Nastratin, în Viaţa românească, nr. 2/1975, p.
34).
Nastratin Hogea a devenit aproape sinonim cu spiritul şi
mentalitatea balcanică şi cu înţeleptul, aşa cum îl înţeleg literaturile
orientale, contemplativ şi moralizator, tragic şi misterios, respectat de
comunitate, dar trăind într-o solitudine monastică. Poartă diferite măşti
şi poate părea grotesc sau ridicol, la nivelul înţelegerii superficiale, în
acelaşi timp, în profunzime, mai înţelept decât cei care râd de el. Luând
în considerare toate aceste aspecte, Nastratin Hogea poate fi considerat
imaginea orientală şi balcanică a înţeleptului rătăcitor.
Originalitatea
personajului,
la
nivelul întregii sale
reprezentativităţi în literatura balcanică, constă în felul în care, prin el,
înţelepciunea devine un act de toleranţă exprimat în mod aforistic.
Sadoveanu este prozatorul care, preluând personajul înţeleptului din
cărţile populare de tip Alixandria, Sindipa şi Halima, îi conferă
dimensiunile şi paradigma unui personaj de literatură modernă. În
romanele lui Ştefan Bănulescu şi Constantin Ţoiu, personajul reapare,
dar este mai greu de identificat sub masca unor contemporani, fiind mai
aproape de modelul său oriental de la care păstrează o anumită
atemporalitate.
Plăcerea vorbirii în pilde şi înclinaţia pentru farsa ce ascunde
elementul tragic au recomandat personajul literaturii postmoderne, unde
se poate vorbi de o întreagă categorie de personaje înrudite cu
folcloricul Nastratin Hogea. Întră în această categorie anticarul Hary
Brummer din Galeria cu viţă sălbatică1 sau arhitectul din Obligado
1 Chiar la începutul romanului anticarul şi mai tânărul său prieten merg să ia o
cină târzie la Capşa. Conversaţia dintre anticar şi Spridonachis este un model de
44
(Ţoiu), generalul Mavrosin din Cartea Milionului (Bănulescu), bătrânul
miniaturist din Mă numesc Roşu şi personajul narator din Fortăreaţa
albă de Orhan Pamuk. Limbajul îi recomandă ca sfătuitori ai
comunităţii şi ca imagini ale lui Nastratin Hogea.
Primul care trebuie menţionat este personajul narator din romanul
Fortăreaţa albă de Orhan Pamuk, tânărul veneţian. El este un astfel de
înţelept ce priveşte cu detaşare şi ironie apusul Imperiului Otoman.
Înţelepciunii şi raţionalismului său i se opune lipsa de înţelepciune a
celui numit în mod ironic Hogea1. Numele, care nu este de fapt un
patronimic, ci o calitate, nu corespunde profilului personajului, un om
capricios, ros de ambiţii, servil faţă de sultan, pe care îl salvează obsesia
pentru împlinirea unui ideal ştiinţific. Conform unui procedeu literar
tipic postmodern, cei doi sunt imagini în oglindă. Hogea şi tânărul
veneţian se aseamănă fizic până la confuzie, se completează în plan
moral, dar au caractere diferite, sunt ceea ne îndreptăţeşte să le
considerăm personaje în oglindă, opuse, dar având de fapt aceeaşi sursă
livrescă în imaginea lui Nastratin Hogea.
Nu putea lipsi acest tip de personaj nici din romanele lui Ismail
Kadare, autor ce se consideră continuator al tradiţiei vechilor povestitori
balcanici. În romanul Palatul viselor, înţelepţii sunt cântăreţii albanezi
care interpretează balada prăbuşirii podului şi care, transmiţând emoţia
artistică puternică a interpretării desăvârşite, responsabilizează
auditoriul, în mod special pe eroul principal, fidel funcţionar al
Imperiului Otoman. „Gâtuit de emoţie, Mark-Ale, simţi o pornire
năvalnică să se lepede de jumătatea orientală a numelui său şi să adopte
un nume nou, aşa cum erau cele din ţara lui de baştină: Gijon, Gjergi sau
Ghiorg.” (Ismail Kadare, Palatul viselor, editura Humanitas, Bucureşti,
2007, p. 234).
cozerie balcanică, cu false indignări şi apobări formale: „Muşchi de vacă în
sânge – mie nu-mi pui unt, îi atrase el atenţia, îmi pui numai cimbru...
– Cimbru? exclamă ofensat Spiridonachis. Nu suntem zahana!
– Ba suntem, ce ne împiedică? Îl contrazise anticarul cu severitate
prefăcută. Mie să-mi pui cimbru! Gusturile se schimă şi ele, domnule
Spiridonachis.” (Constantin Ţoiu, Galeria cu viţă sălbatică, editura Eminescu,
Bucureşti, 1976, p. 27).
1 Numele se acordă celor învăţaţi, înţelepţi, dar aici cel învăţat e celălalt,
străinul, veneţianul luat rob de piraţi şi care aduce cu sine cunoştinţe din lumea
occidentală.
45
Una dintre cele mai interesante reinterpretări ale lui Nastratin
Hogea în literatura română postmodernă este Hanry Brummer din
romanul Galeria cu viţă sălbatică de Constantin Ţoiu, a cărui
înţelepciune ne este sugerată chiar de profesia sa de anticar, adică
iubitor şi cunoscător de cărţi. Îndrumător al mai tânărului său prieten,
Chiril Merişor. El este rătăcitor într-o epocă în care valorile sunt
inversate şi firescul devine ciudat, în care realitatea trebuie interpretată
sau ascunsă pentru a o salva. Chiar din primele pagini ale romanului,
prozatorul sugerează legătura personajului cu tipologia înţeleptului
rătăcitor, insistând asupra originii sale evreieşti, neam condamnat a
rătăci prin pustiu pentru a afla adevărul şi pentru a se mântui.1
Prin imagine sa de înţelept rătăcitor, Hogea Nastratin, personaj
de origine orientală, investit cu anumite caracteristici preluate de la
eroul picaresc al romanelor medievale din Occident, îmbogăţit cu
atribute din fondul înţelepciunii folclorice specifice popoarelor din
Balcani, este personajul emblematic ce reflectă mentalitatea balcanică.
El a dobândit mult din duhul satiric al spiritualităţii româneşti şi
conduce la descifrarea marilor interogaţii despre natura umană în
general, sporind caracterul de specificitate al romanului balcanic.
Alături de umbra inconfundabilă a eroilor lui Mateiu Caragiale, cea a lui
Nastratin veghează destinul literaturii balcanice.
Bibliografie
Boia, Lucian, Occidentul - o interpretare istorică, editura Humanitas,
Bucureşti, 2007.
Bănulescu, Ştefan, Cartea Milionarului. Cartea de la Metopolis, editura
Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1977.
Kadare, Ismail, Palatul viselor, editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2007.
Pamuk, Orhan, Fortăreaţa albă, editura Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2007.
Idem, Mă numesc Roşu, editura Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2006.
Regman, Cornel, Premii pentru urmaşii lui Nastratin, în Viaţa
românească, nr. 2/1975.
Ţoiu, Constantin, Galeria cu viţă sălbatică, editura Eminescu, Bucureşti,
1976.
1 „Erau ideile unui unui vechi şi liberal fiu al pustiului , ai cărui strămoşi
văzuseră, construiseră atâtea şi în ale cărui pleoape roşii de iepure, mereu
umflate, mereu bolnave, se ascundeau probabil multe fire de nisip.” (Ţoiu, op.
cit., p. 9).
46
Nastratin Hogea - A Balkan Image of the Wandering Wise
In the Western medieval literature there is a character that impresses
his reader by his sadness as well as by his sense of humour. A Balkan
version, surviving up to modern times is the well known Nastratin Hogea.
He is a character of Oriental source, that comes from Turkish folklore and
who has spread in the whole Balkan region as a representative image of
this literature. He has become a label of Balkan mentality, a rich mixture
of tragic, grotesque and satire, one which is characteristic for the Balkan
prose.
The postmodern versions of the character are very creative and can be
interpreted as a proof of his contemporary and of Balkan prose unit.
The Balkan civilization is often mentioned as a rural one, with
specific forms that belong to oral communication. It is an incomplete
image which ignores the rich history of the aria. Actually, in that region
an aulic civilization of Byzantine source can be identified, one which
survived in more or less exquisite shapes during the whole long Middle
Age, a period characteristic to for the Balkans. Nastratin Hogea is a
literary character that can be found everywhere in the Balkans, a
character generated by the multiethnic and multi-religious world of
Balkan towns. In Turkish is called Nasreddin Hoca, in Bosnian
Nasrudin hodža, in Arabic and Persian his name is translated as Victory
of Faith; it becomes Nostradin Hoxha in Albanian or just Nostradini.
He can be found in Azerbaijani culture as Molla Nəsrəddin, or as
Nasriddin Afandi or just Afandi in Uzbekistan. Tradition identifies the
literary character with a real one, he is supposed to be either a massager
of Ak-Sikir Anatolian fortress, or a wise man who save the city by
telling stories to Timur-Lenk. He may also be a wise man who lived in
the city of Konya during the Middle Age, probably in the
XIIIth.century, about whom there are no biographical data (cf.
http://ro.wikisource.org/istorisirile_lui_Nastratin_Hogea).
Similar to Shakespeare’s buffoon, Nastratin is shared by many
Balkan literatures and one can found him, in a pretty folkloric shape in
Anton Pann’s literature as well as in Ion Barbu’s modern poetry, mainly
in his poetical cycle about the imaginary city of Isarlîk, where the
symbolical values of the character are enlighten. As it was said by
Cornel Regman “Nastratin is more than a character, he is a way of
speaking about the character, of offering him to the local gossip or to
47
force him to make a fool of himself, to put it short, a way to introduce
him to the public in the same way as the Circus presents its curiosities.
The critic writes about a specific attitude which he calls “nastratinism”,
defined in the same article like that “Beyond other interpretation, the
spirit of Nastratin is an image of social indiscretion (jugged by the
village, town, quarter) facing him to the audience in order to explain his
words.” (Regman, Premii pentru urmaşii lui Nastratin, in Viaţa
românească, nr. 2/1975, p. 34).
Nastratin Hogea has become almost similar to the Balkan spirit and
mentality and the very image of the wise man, according to the oriental
literatures, a contemplative and moralizing, tragic and mysterious
image, respected by the community, living in monastic solitude. He
wears different masks, looking sometimes grotesque or ridiculous, if
superficially analysed, but still wiser that his audience, deep inside.
Taking into consideration all these aspects Nastratin Hogea may be
considered the oriental and Balkan face of the wandering wise.
The character original face, taking into consideration his
representative images in the whole Balkan literature, is due to the fact
that his wisdom turns into tolerance by his aphoristic way of speaking.
Mihail Sadoveanu is the writer who by taken the character of the wise
man from popular books such as Alixandria, Sindipa and Halima
changes his dimensions and paradigm in order to make him a
representative of modern literature. In Ştefan Bănulescu’s and
Constantin Ţoiu’s novels the prototype reapers and it is hard to identify
him under the mask of some contemporary representations, but he is still
close to his oriental pattern from whom he takes a certain timeless. His
pleasure for talking in charades and his gift for hoaxes, elements under
which is hidden his tragic face, recommended the character to
postmodernism, a literary space where one can find a large variety of
similar characters. Hary Brummer the antiquarian of Constantin Ţoiu’s
novel The Wild Vine Gallery (Galeria cu viţă sălbatică1), or the
1 Soon after the beginning of the novel, the antiquarian and his younger friend
take a late supper at Capşa. The conversation between the antiquarian and
Spridonachis, the waiter, is a model of Balkan talk. With false indignations and
formal approvals: Row beef sirloin, no butter for me, just thyme, he said.
– Thyme! Spridonachis said with indignation. We are not an ordinary
pub.
–Yes, we are if necessary, who can stop us, the antiquarian
48
architect from Obligado, General Mavrosin of Cartea Milionarului (The
Book of the Millionaire) – Ştefan Bănulescu), or the old miniature
painting of My name is Red and the narratorr of White Fortress (Orhan
Pamuk) are some of the characters that may be listed as wandering wise
men. Their way of speaking recommends them as city advisers and as
Nastratin Hogea’s images.
The first to be mentioned is the narrator of The White Fortress by
Orhan Pamuk; the young Venetian is such a character too, watching in
detached and ironic way the decadence of the Ottoman Empire. His
wisdom and rationalism are the opposite of irrational character
ironically called Hogea1. The name is not really a patronymic; it is more
a quality describing the his profile, that of an capricious man, devastated
by ambition, obsequious in his relationship with the sultan, saved by his
obsession to fulfil his obsession for a scientific idea. According to a
typical postmodern pattern, both images are in a mirror. The Hogea and
the young Venetian are alike, from the physical point of view, but their
characters are different. They oppose each other even if one is
apparently the very image of the other, both having the same bookish
source: the image of Nastratin Hogea.
The same prototype could not be missed by Ismail Kadare in his
novels, especially because he considers himself as a continuer of old
Balkan storytellers. In his novel The Dreams Palace the wise men are
the Albanian singers, those who sing the old ballad of the broken bridge,
those who, by transmitting the emotion of perfect interpretation, rise the
consciousness of the audience, especially that of the main hero, a
devoted clerk of the Ottoman empire. „Overwhelm by emotion, MarkAle, had a strong feeling to give up the oriental half of his name, to
choose a new name, like those of his home country : Gijon, Gjergi or
Ghiorg.” (Kadare, Palatul viselor, Humanitas Publishing House,
Bucureşti, 2007, p. 234).
One of the most interesting reinterpretation of Nastratin Hogea
in Romanian postmodern literature is Henry Brummer, a character of
contradicted him with a false severity. Just thyme! (Constantin Toiu,
Constantin, Galeria cu viţă sălbatică, Eminescu Publishing House, Bucureşti,
1976, p. 27).
1 Name that is generally given to scholars and wise men, but here the wise
man is the stranger, the Venetian that was taken prisoner by pirates bringing his
knowledge from the western world.
49
Constantin Toiu’s novel Galeria cu viţă sălbatică (The Wild Vine
Gallery), whose wisdom is suggested by his profession that of an
antiquarian, in other words, a books’ lover and connoisseur. He is a
guide for his young friend Chiril Merişor, lost in an époque where the
real values are overturned, where normality becomes unusual, where
reality has to be reinterpreted or hidden in order to save it. His similarity
to the wondering wise is suggested from the very first pages, when the
writer claims his Jewish origin, people condemned to wander in the
desert in order to find the truth and its salvation.1
Due to his image connected to that of the wandering wise Hogea
Nastratin, the oriental character related to the western picaroon of the
Middle Age novels, enriched by the folk wisdom of the Balkans is the
representative of the Balkan mentality. He inherited the satire of
Romanian spirituality, as well as the ambiguous way of speaking
characteristic of the Turks, characteristics that helps him to decode the
mysteries of human nature, in general, and that of the Balkan culture, in
particular. Joined by the shadow of unique heroes of Mateiu Caragiale,
that of Nastratin watches the destiny of the Balkan area.
(Translation: Maria Alexe)
References
1. Boia, Lucian, Occidentul - o interpretare istorică, Humanitas
Publishing House, Bucureşti, 2007.
2. Bănulescu, Ştefan, Cartea Milionarului; Cartea de la Metopolis,
Eminescu Publishing House, Bucureşti, 1977.
3. Kadare, Ismail, Palatul viselor, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucureşti,
2007.
4. Pamuk, Orhan, Fortăreaţa albă,Curtea Veche Publishing House,
Bucureşti, 2007.
5. Pamuk, Orhan, Mă numesc Roşu, Curtea Veche Publishing House,
Bucureşti, 2006.
6. Regman Cornel, Premii pentru urmaşii lui Nastratin, in Viaţa
românească , nr. 2/1975.
7. Ţoiu, Constantin, Galeria cu viţă sălbatică, Eminescu Publishing
House, Bucureşti, 1976.
1 “These were he ideas of an old liberal son of the desert, whose ancestors
have seen many, built many things and whose red eye lines always swollen,
always sick, hidden many grid of sands. (Toiu, 1976 p. 9).
50
DAN ANGHELESCU (ROMÂNIA)
Baki Ymeri: un anotimp sufletesc sans rivage
Spiritualitatea,
arta,
miturile,
datinile
albanezilor – asupra cărora şi Nicolae Iorga se
pronunţa susţinând că „sunt întocmai cu acelea ale
românilor /…/ din Principate” – atestă temelia
străvechilor dăinuiri iliro-traco-dacice pe teritoriile dintre Carpaţi, Dunăre şi
Mediterana.
Poetul Baki Ymeri este nu numai un scriitor remarcabil, ci şi un spirit
conştient că în exprimările sale se reprezintă nu doar pe sine, ci şi o
întreagă şi străveche lume spirituală. Aşa se face că afirmarea şi
reafirmarea imemorialelor legături şi înrudiri dintre români şi albanezi
constituie – în scrierile sale – una dintre constantele şi pasionatele
preocupări.
Plin de merite, şi totuşi în chip poetic locuieşte omul pe acest
pământ … Dintre rostirile târzii ale lui Hölderlin mă reîntorc cu gândul
către aceasta pentru că, în anumite momente, înclin să cred că acei
trăitori (de milenii!) în spaţiul dintre Carpaţi, Pontul Euxin, Balcani şi
Mediterana ar putea să-şi afle în ea o veritabilă deviză. Aşezat pe un
imaginar blazon spiritual, acest quasi adagiu ar exprima ceva din esenţa
(întâi de toate spirituală!) a dăinuirii prin timp. Ar reaminti că Orfeu
sălăşluia undeva pe aici pe aproape, la poalele muntelui Haemus. Că
fabuloasa lume a Levantului s-a ridicat şi pe temelia de suflet a
străvechilor poeţi ai Heladei, mulţi dintre ei purtându-şi o supra-numire:
aceea de Trac.
Balcani, Balcanitate, Balcanism…Când vine vorba despre
cultură, aceste trei cuvinte vorbesc despre o umanitate ce se defineşte
printr-un inedit aliaj „de elemente oriental-occidentale (ce) impregnează
psihologia, mentalitatea şi, corelativ, creaţia artistică a omului de
miazăzi de ieri şi de astăzi.” (Mircea Muthu, Balcanismul literar
românesc, vol. III, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2002, p.11). În esenţă,
vădindu-se prin forme diverse şi ample de interpenetraţie spirituală,
Balcanitatea se identifică şi în sensul unei inconfundabile amprente
51
identitare.
Dintr-o asemenea perspectivă, poetul Baki Ymeri este nu numai
un scriitor remarcabil, ci şi un spirit conştient că în exprimările sale se
reprezintă nu doar pe sine, ci şi o întreagă şi străveche lume spirituală.
Aşa se face că afirmarea şi reafirmarea imemorialelor legături şi înrudiri
dintre români şi albanezi constituie – în scrierile sale – una dintre
constantele şi pasionatele preocupări. Distingem aici două dintre
ipostazele evident inseparabile ce dau o anume singularitate
personalităţii sale de creator. Dacă cercetătorul utilizează argumentaţii
riguros eşafodate pentru a pune în lumină o străveche şi tulburătoare
identitate comună, poetul imaginează demersuri similare într-un ambitus
de mijloace, desigur total diferit. Astfel, în Lumina Dardaniei (volum de
poeme publicat la editura Muzeului Literaturii Române), textul intitulat
Dicţionar comun propune o alcătuire lirică în care sunt subliniate
(boldate!) cuvintele comune ambelor limbi: „Bucuria pe buză-/ O guşă
umflată de fluier./ Un brâu şi o căciulă. / O cioară cu o coacăză-n
cioc./..etc”. Acelaşi exerciţiu se repetă câteva pagini mai încolo sub
titlul Dicţionar comun (II), cu o nouă înşiruire (nu mai puţin
tulburătoare) de cuvinte comune: copil, ghiuj, moş, brânză, urdă, zer,
cătun, gard, vatră, groapă, noian, măgură, mal, brusture, leurdă,
spânz, barză ghionoaie şi pupăză, baci, zgardă, ţeapă, strungă,
searbăd, ţarc etc. După toate acestea, poetul-cercetător (sau
cercetătorul-poet?) ne învăluie în farmecul straniu al unei rostiri parcă
întoarsă din lumina trecutelor milenii: „Vezi ce mister admirabil/
Conţine acest dicţionar albano-român/ Care ascunde povestea/ Unei
antice legături de sânge/ Când până şi păsările pricepeau ce vorbim:/ Şi
barză şi cioară şi ghionoaie şi pupăză,/ Când turmele urcând înspre
stână/ Şi noi vorbeam despre/…/ Şi ne bucuram când luceafărul/ Sus
scăpăra./”
Aceste întâlniri de cuvinte-împreună ne îngăduie înţelegerea
faptului că „apropierea este atât de mare încât lingvistul deseori are
impresia că are în faţă o singură materie de limbă”. Aserţiunea aceasta
aparţine unui distins lingvist albanez, Eqrem Cabej, citat de Baki Ymeri
în articolul intitulat Fenomenologia albano-română. Un miracol al
istoriei publicat în Carmina Balcanica (anul II, no.1/2/, 2009). Întradevăr, spiritualitatea, arta, miturile, datinile albanezilor – asupra cărora
şi Nicolae Iorga se pronunţa susţinând (alături şi de alţi cercetători şi
istorici) că „sunt întocmai cu acelea ale românilor /…/ din Principate” –
atestă temelia străvechilor dăinuiri iliro-traco-dacice pe teritoriile dintre
52
Carpaţi, Dunăre şi Mediterana. Sunt semne şi peceţi în interiorul cărora
– atunci când este vorba despre cultură, istorii tragice, gândire sau
comportamente – ne regăsim şi ne recunoaştem într-o coloratură
spirituală ce ne exprimă şi ne defineşte.
Pentru Baki Ymeri, Poeticul se situează într-o zonă de
deschidere către orizonturile sub care semnificaţiile devin purtătoarele
unor evidente valenţe de natură emblematică: „Mulţi dintre noi/ Nici nu
ştim încă şi,/ Poate nu vom şti niciodată/ Că lumina cuvântului/ care-şi
are izvorul / în fântânile albano-române/ E cel mai sfânt dar/ De pe
buzele Domnului./ Căci Domnul întrebase atunci./ (Cu puţin înainte de
amurg):/ Ce vreţi voi de la mine?/ Imperii, mări cu corăbii,/ Femei
trecătoare/ Sau cuvântul din cer?/ Şi noi, bieţii de noi,/ Ne-am îngăduit/
Să-i cerem un cer de cuvinte./” (Frumoase femei cu prunci adormiţi).
Evanescenţa acestor ciudate rostiri survine parcă de sub
înceţoşate întâmplări ale soartei: civilizaţie şi barbarie, cultură, tragism,
durere, confruntări cu iraţionalul, credinţe, toleranţă, înţelepciuni şi
tulburătoare ispite. Umbra unui Ego absconditus, supra sau infrapersonal, aluvionează discursul poetic cu toate tainele rămase dintr-o
imemorială trăire laolaltă, auto-proiectându-se în icoana pe care sufletul
Levantului şi-a făurit-o gândind despre lume şi timp, despre soartă,
oameni, istorii şi Dumnezeire.
Se vor desluşi în toate acestea formele şi configuraţiile de
trăsături de pe urma cărora prind consistenţă realităţi de la care am
început să gândim conceptul de Balcanitate. Într-un asemenea mod de a
înţelege lucrurile, Lucian Blaga se reîntâlneşte cu Mircea Vulcănescu şi
– nu mai puţin – cu Mircea Eliade: „Noi – scria acesta din urmă – ne
aflăm realmente la mijloc, între două culturi, Orientul şi Occidentul, noi
putem înălţa un fel de pod, putem înlesni comunicarea valorilor din
Occident şi Orient şi viceversa. Şi asta nu numai pentru că suntem unde
suntem – în Orient şi totuşi în Occident – dar pentru că suntem una din
puţinele culturi europene care am păstrat încă vii anumite izvoare ale
culturii populare şi deci arhaice” (M. Eliade, L’Epreuve du labyrinthe.
Entretiens avec Claude-Henri Roquet, P. Belfond, Paris, 1978, p. 74)
În egală măsură, poetul, ca şi cercetătorul Baki Ymeri se află –
în mod cât se poate de evident – sub fascinaţia acestor tulburătoare
efluvii spirituale venind de peste milenii. Prin ele, gândirea,
sensibilităţile şi nu mai puţin credinţa contribuie la configurarea unor
forme cu totul speciale în sfera exprimărilor Poeticului.
Am menţionat – şi nu întâmplător sau în treacăt – credinţa,
53
pentru că, pornind de aici, este pus în evidenţă un specific de natură
sincretică al balcanităţii: persistenţa apropierilor dintre discursul artistic
şi cel religios. De la Homer şi presocratici o anume incandescenţă de
natură mistică era prezentă în orice fapt de artă. Ea se lasă întrezărită în
fascinaţia acestora pentru întunecimile mitului orfic. O regăsim la Platon
(ca amestec de motive religioase tradiţionale şi concepte filosofice), la
Dionisie Areopagitul ca şi la asceţii atoniţi. Este ceea ce persistă şi
singularizează atât ethosul, cât şi filozofia pe care se întemeiază întreaga
arhitectonică spirituală a spaţiului levantin. Textele lui Baki Ymeri nu
fac nici ele excepţie. Iată această Meditaţie: „ Cine oare a zis/ Că
rugăciunea nu-i/ Sfântă cântare a Logosului,/ Linişte a amurgului/ Şi a
clarităţii mentale?/…” Sau iată textul intitulat la fel de semnificativ
Gloria tibi, Domine: „Doamne,/ Cât de aproape de mine Tu eşti/ Şi cât
de departe/ noi suntem de Tine!/ Gloria tibi, Domine!/Dă-mi, Doamne,
credinţa/ Şi puterea iubirii/ care mângâie!/…/Doamne/ Când de la
fereastra casei mi-arăţi/ Cum mama urcă pe cărarea de munte/ Şi, lin,
Veşnicie devine./ Gloria tibi, Domine!/…”
Evident, aici, în Levant, dialogul cu Dumnezeirea nu s-a
întrerupt niciodată. Casa şi muntele, satul şi veşnicia, sfânta mamă,
credinţele şi suferinţa sunt indestructibil legate de transcendent: „Tatăl
nostru/ Care eşti în ceruri,/ Sfinţească-se numele Tău,/ Vie împărăţia
Ta,/ Facă-se voia Ta/ Precum în cer/ aşa şi pe pământ!/…./Coroana lui/
Îţi aduce aminte/ de îngerii care veghează/ Pe cerul cătunului/
Răcorindu-i sudoarea/ Sfintei mame/ Care încă mai sapă/ Grădina
suferinţei./ În numele Tatălui, şi al Fiului/ Şi al Sfântului duh. Amin!/
Trecem prin faţa lui/ Aşa cum trecea şi Fran Kola/ Prin faţa Cetăţii
Tetova/Pentru a-i aduce aminte sultanului/ Că din punct de vedere-al
credinţei/ Şipkoviţa şade la sânul Vaticanului/” (Bradul tatălui meu din
Şipkoviţa).
Desigur, acestea toate nu sunt decât întâmplări ale gândului şi
sufletelor. Spiritualitatea, cărţile de înţelepciune, arta, rugăciunile şi –
evident – poezia nu se justifică decât prin faptul că nu sunt altceva decât
adăpostiri ale fiinţărilor noastre mereu grăitoare (Sprechendseins le-ar
numi Gadamer – v. Expresia estetică şi cea religioasă în vol.
Actualitatea frumosului, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi, 2000, p. 134) ce dau mărturie
despre un alt fel de a fi al umanităţilor din spaţiul sud-estului european.
Capabil să vorbească zece limbi şi să scrie deopotrivă în limba
română (maternă), ca şi în cea albaneză (paternă), inepuizabilul Baki
Ymeri ar echivala – într-un ipotetic regat al cuvintelor – cu un
54
Gargantua şi Pantagruel luaţi împreună. Pentru că este un fantastic
consumator de cuvinte. Poet, publicist, eseist şi traducător el le consumă
şi se consumă prin ele cu o insaţiabilă – dar totuşi delicată – pasiune. A
publicat numeroase articole despre românii şi albanezii din sudul
Dunării şi a tradus mii de versuri din lirica românească (Nichita
Stănescu, Marin Sorescu, Carolina Ilica, Anghel Dumbrăveanu şi mulţi
alţii). Dar, dincolo de toate câte s-au spus, ori nu mai au loc să se spună
aici, Baki Ymeri rămâne sub pecetluirea marilor semne ale Poeticului
(Das Dichterische). Despodobită de conotaţii, retorica poemelor lui
dezvăluie un ritual al marii simplităţi. Deşi plin de elanul unor imersiuni
– prin toate timpurile, prin toate experienţele şi întâmplările de limbaj –,
Consumatorul de cuvinte Baki Ymeri s-ar părea că uneori rămâne totuşi
suspendat, ezitând între cuvânt şi tăcere atunci când o întreagă şi tragică
Istorie (acest precipitat al mileniilor) este – parcă instantaneu –
întrezărită într-un Psalm: „Cine eşti tu,/ Frumuseţe amară?/ De unde vii/
Şi te grăbeşti, încotro?/O, Doamne,/ Strămoşii mei,/ Vecinii mei,/
Prietenii mei,/Duşmanii mei/ Şi eu printre ei/ Tot alergam după tine/
Orbi şi goi,/ Muţi şi surzi./ De mii de ani,/ Ne târâm în genunchi,/ Nenchinăm cu evlavie,/Ne jertfim pentru tine,/ Şi tu ne naşti/ şi te sperii de
noi/” (Psalm).
Plasticitatea transparentă a fantastelor lui piruete discursive
aduce în prim plan o conştiinţă în ale cărei profunzimi nici întunecimile
tragicului, nici interogaţiile nu mai au de unde primi un răspuns: „Şi la
urma urmelor/ De unde oare/ Întrebarea aceasta/ Peste stolul
răspunsurilor tăcute?/…/ Cine este acest înger/ Am întrebat luna/ Şi ea a
răspuns:/ Mai bine să nu ştii!/” (Fructul oprit).
A devenit, cred, limpede că Poezia lui Baki Ymeri este – înainte
de toate – o viziune în care Fiinţarea se caută pe sine venind de peste
mari – de-ne-cuprins – întinderi temporale. Şi îşi află lumina îmbrăcată
atât în cuvinte cât şi într-un dincolo al cuvintelor acolo unde, cum se
rostise cândva Hrisostomul, Cuvântul este mai mare decât vederea! O
claviatură strălucitoare a spunerii ne dă măsura acelor alcătuiri secrete
prin care adevărurile Fiinţării se distilează în poem: „Auzi cum cântă
turmele din Pind!/ Mi-e frică şi milă./Mi-e dor de acasă./ Dă-mi
Doamne liniştea/ Să mă cuprindă, şi apoi/ Singurătatea mea/Las-o să
plece din nou/ Cu turmele din Pind/ Să mă opresc/ În lunga lor tristeţe/
Că vine toamna/ Şi mi-e frig de Pind,/ Apoi de toate…/Mă Întorc
acasă./”
55
Aproape ca un orchestrator care face să răsune în noi mici
deliruri hipnagogice, mereu traversat de un profund filon mistic, chiar şi
atunci când aparenţele par să ducă spre un altundeva, interiorul
poemelor lui abia reuşeşte să disimuleze un background de erotism şi de
boemă religioasă. „Lasă-mă/ Aşa cum a dat Dumnezeu!/ Mie şi
pomilor/ Ne place/ să ne dezbrăcăm / pe întuneric./ Vino, iubito,/ Noi
suntem învăţăceii luminii./ Vom intra în biblioteci neguroase/Şi vom
deschide tomul/ Care-ţi descrie trufia./ Somn/ Gustat cu lingura
pleoapelor./ Trezeşte-te… /” (De dragoste). În – totuşi discreta –
sfărâmare lăuntrică, fiecare poem se desluşeşte şi ca o aruncare în
flăcări. Deliberat subterane – deci surdinizate la maximum – accentele
de melancolie invadează începând chiar din micro-structurile fiecărui
poem. Minuscule celule aparent anecdotice se insinuează în eşafodajul
liric fracturând realitatea sub ardentele desfăşurări ale unei imaginaţii
mereu răvăşitoare: „Străzile/ Îşi deschid însetatele guri/ Pentru a înghiţi/
Vieţile noastre/ În vreme ce agrafa părului tău/ Rămâne decoraţie uitată/
Pe pernă./” (Agrafa).
Reperul fundamental al acestei poezii, determinându-i decisiv
dicţia – cu totul specială – rămâne, fără îndoială, sinceritatea. Avalanşa
de întrebări şi nelinişti planează, nu o dată apăsător, într-un superius al
rostirii poetice şi chiar se dizolvă în însăşi atmosfera pe care lucrurile
din jur o respiră! Baki Ymeri posedă rafinamentul decantărilor solemne,
dar şi severitatea autoscopiilor devoratoare evadate dintr-un anotimp
sufletesc sans rivage.
56
Baki Ymeri: a Sans Rivage Soul’s Season
Albanian spirituality, arts, myths and customs, that Nicolae Iorga, the
well-known Romanian historian, approximated to be "exactly the same
with the Romanians’ /…./ those people living in the Principalities", testify
to the enduring Illyrian-Thracian-Dacian heritage on the territories
bordered by the Carpathians, the Danube and the Mediterranean.
Baki Ymeri is not only an extraordinary poet but also a writer conscious
that his writings express more than his own personality, they belong to an
ancient spiritual world. That is why his reiterated affirmation pertaining to
the immemorial ties linking the Romanians and the Albanians is one of
his constant topics.
Worthily yet poetically does man live in the world…I have
chosen this characterization written by Hölderlin because there are
moments when I am inclined to believe that the ancient inhabitants of
the territory bordered by the Carpathians, Pontux Euxinus, the Balkan
Mountains and the Mediterranean could consider it a genuine guiding
principle. Laid on a spiritual imaginary coat of arms, this semi adagio
could express something of the (primarily spiritual) essence of human
endurance in time. It would remind us that Orpheus used to live near-by,
at the feet of the Haemus Mons, that the fabulous Levantine world rose
on the foundations built by the ancient Greek poets’ souls, many of
whom also called themselves Thracians..
The Balkan Mountains, Balkanism…Culturally speaking, these
words tell us of a community defined by a strange alloy of „OrientalOccidental elements that inform the psychology, mentality and
consequently the creation of the Easterner today and yesterday”
(Mircea Muthu, Balcanismul literar românesc,(Romanian Literary
Balkanism) vol. III, Ed. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2002, p.11). The Balkanic
spirit, though emerging through various and ample forms of cultural
interpenetration, can be identified by its unique identitary imprint.
From this perspective, Baki Ymeri is not only an extraordinary
poet but also a writer conscious that his writings express more than his
own personality, they belong to an ancient spiritual world. That is why
his reiterated affirmation pertaining to the immemorial ties linking the
57
Romanians and the Albanians is one of his constant topics. One can
distinguish two of the obviously inseparable instances that lend a
particular tone to his creative personality. If the researcher uses
rigurously structured demonstrations to highlight an old common
identity, the poet imagines similar approaches using different vehicles.
In Dardania’s Light (a volume of poems published by the Romanian
Literature Museum Publishing House), the poem entitled Common
Dictionary poetically records a number of words common to the two
languages (in bold) :
“The glee on the lip/ A pipe’s swollen bag/ A girdle and a cap/
A crow with a cranberry in its beak./…”
The same exercise is repeated later in the volume in the poem
Common Dictionary(II) where a none less touching list of common
nouns follows: child, old man, cheese, hamlet, fence, hearth, hole,
heap, hill, shore, thorn, stork, woodpecker, hoopoo, shepherd, leash,
pole, insipid, a.o. The researcher-poet or poet-researcher further extends
the charm of his discovery in a poem that echoes age-old truths:
“Can you see the fascinating mystery/ This Albanian-Romanian
dictionary contains/ Which unveils the story/ Of an ancient blood-tie/
When even birds could understand our tongue/ The stork, crow,
woodpecker and hoopoo/ When flocks climbed to the sheepfold/ And
we were talking…/Glad that the evening star/ Was twinkling in the
sky“.
These peer-words lists allow us to understand that ‘the
similitudes are so great that the linguist often has the impression he
deals with one single language’. This is what Eqrem Cabej, a most
distinguished Albanian linguist, said and Baki Ymeri quoted his
assertion in his own
article entitled Romanian-Albanian
Phenomenology. A History Miracle published in Carmina Balcanica
(year II, no.1/2/, 2009). Indeed, Albanian spirituality, arts, myths and
customs, that Nicolae Iorga, the well-known Romanian historian,
approximated to be "exactly the same with the Romanians’ /…./ those
people living in the Principalities", testify to the enduring IllyrianThracian-Dacian heritage on the territories bordered by the Carpathians,
the Danube and the Mediterranean. In terms of culture, tragic histories
and human behaviour, there are common signs and seals that define our
spiritual colors, express our souls, and define our identities.
Baki Ymeri considers that poeticality lies where significance
58
carries emblematic evidence:
„Many of us/ Don’t know yet/ And will never know, perhaps/
That the light of the word/ Emerging from/ The Albanian-Romanian
fountains/ Is the holiest gift/ From God’s lips/ Because God asked then/
(Shortly before sunset):/ What do you want from me?/ Empires, seas
under vessels,/ Ephemeral women/ Or the heavenly word?/ And we,
poor souls/ Took the liberty/Of asking him for a heaven of words./
”(Beautiful Women with Sleeping Children)
The evanescence of these rather strange words emerges from a
dim hazy fate: civilization and barbarity, culture, tragedy, pain,
confrontations with the irrational, beliefs, tolerance, wisdom and
temptations. The shadow of an Ego absconditus, super- or infrapersonal,
enriches the poetic discourse with the secrets of an immemorial cohabitation, projecting itself onto the icon that the Levantine soul has
forged out of images on people, time, fate, histories and God.
All these contain the forms and configurations that shaped a
reality which engendered the concept of Balkanism. Lucian Blaga, a
great Romanian poet and philosopher, agrees on this issue with Mircea
Vulcanescu, another philosopher, and Mircea Eliade. Eliade wrote: “We
are in between two cultures: the Orient and the Occident, we can build a
sort of bridge, we can help
Oriental and Occidental
valuescommunicate. And this happens not only because we are located
in the Orient, yet in the Occident, but because we are one of the few
European cultures that kept certain sources of folk culture, which is
archaic, alive” (M. Eliade, L’Epreuve du labyrinthe. Entretiens avec
Claude-Henri Roquet (The Test of the Labyrinth, Discussions with
Claude-Henri Roquet), P. Belfond, Paris, 1978, p. 74).
.
Likewise, Baki Ymeri is, obviously, under the spell of these
century-old spiritual emanations. Through them his philosophy,
sensibility and, last but nor least, faith contribute to shaping a particular
form of Poeticality.
It is not by accident that I have mentioned faith, because a
syncretic characteristic of the Balkans derives from it: the close
relationship between the artistic and the religious discourses. Ever since
Homer and the pre-Socratic philosophers a certain mystical flame has
been discerned in every work of art. One can perceive it in their
fascination with the darkness of the Orphic myth. One can find it with
Plato (a mixture of traditional religious motifs and philosophic
59
concepts), with Dyonisius Areopagitus and the Athonite Hermits. It is
what characterizes the ethos and the philosophy on which the Levantine
space was created. Baki Ymeri’s texts share the same outlook. Here is
Meditation : “ Who has said/ That the prayer is not/ Sacred praise of
Logos,/ Stillness of the dusk/ And mental clarity?/”.
The poem significantly entitled Gloria tibi, Domine: “ Oh,
God,/How close to me You are/ And us, how far from You/ Gloria tibi,
Domine!/ Give me faith,/ And the power of love/ That soothes!/…/Oh,
God/ When from the window You show me/ My mother climbing the
mountain path/ And, slowly, turning into Eternity./ Gloria tibi,
Domine!/…”
Obviously, here in the Levant, the dialogue with Divinity has
never stopped. The house and the mountain, the village and eternity, the
holy mother, the beliefs and sufferings are vitally linked to the
transcendental: "Our Father in heaven,/ Hallowed be your name/ Your
kingdom come,/ Your will be done,/ On earth as it is in heaven/…/ His
crown/ Reminds you of / The angels that keep vigil/In the village sky/
Wiping the sweat / Of the holy mother/ Who is still plowing/ The
garden of suffering/.In the name of the Father,/ And of the Son,/ And of
the Holy Spirit/ Amen./ We pass him by/ Like Fran Kola used to/ Pass
by Tetova fortress/ To remind the sultan that/ From a religious point of
view/ Şipkoviţa lies at the heart of The Vatican!”(My Father’s Firtree in
Şipkoviţa).
Of course, all these things are but happenings of the thought and
the soul. Spirituality, wisdom books, art, prayers and poetry, naturally,
are nothing but shelters for our ‘speaking beings’ (Gadamer calls them
Sprechendseins in Expresia estetică şi cea religioasă (Aesthetic and
Religious Expression) in Actualitatea frumosului (The Actuality of the
Beautiful) Iaşi: ed. Polirom 2000, p. 134) which testify to another form
of existence of the people living in south-eastern Europe.
Conversant with ten languages and writing in Romanian
(maternal tongue) and Albanian (paternal tongue), Baki Ymeri would be
– in a hypothetical kingdom of words – Gargantua and Pantagruel in one
character. Because he is a fantastic word consumer. A poet, journalist,
essayist and translator he devours them and is, in his turn, devoured with
an insatiable but delicate passion. He has published many articles on the
Romanians and Albanians who live south of the Danube and has
translated thousands of Romanian verses (Nichita Stănescu, Marin
Sorescu, Carolina Ilica, Anghel Dumbrăveanu a.o.). But, beyond
60
everything that has been told about him, Baki Ymeri remains under the
sign of Poeticality (Das Dichterische). Devoid of connotations, the
rhetoric of his poems reveals a ritual of great simplicity. Despite his
frequent immersions - in time, experience, language events – Baki
Ymeri, the language consumer, sometimes remains suspended,
hesitating between telling and silence. As in his Psalm when a whole
tragic History is brought to life again: ‘Who are you/ Bitter beauty?/
Where do you come from/ And where do you rush to?/ Oh, God,/ My
ancestors,/ My neighbours,/ My friends,/ My enemies,/ And I among
them,/ We have all been running after you/ Blind and naked,/ Deaf and
mute./ For hundreds of years/ We have been crawling on our knees,/
Humbly praying to you,/ Sacrificing ourselves for you,/ And you bring
us into being/ And then get scared of us./’
The transparent plasticity of his discoursive phantasmic
pirouettes brings to the fore conscience from whose recesses neither the
depths of the tragic nor interrogations can force out an answer: “After
all/ Where from/ This question/ Over the flock of quiet
answers?/…/Who is this angel/ I asked the moon/ And it replied:/You’d
better not know!/” (Forbidden Fruit)
It has become, I hope, clear that Baki Ymeri’s poetry is – if
anything – a vision in which the Being is looking for Itself coming from
vast – beyond reach – temporal vistas. And it learns its light clad in
words and beyond-words there where, as Christtheman once said, The
word is greater than sight! A bright worded keyboard gives us the
measure of the hidden structures through which the being distills its
truth in the poem: “Listen to the music of Pindus flocks/ I am afraid and
I feel pity./ I am homesick./ Give me peace, God/ To wrap me in it and
then,/ Let my solitude/ Leave me again/ With the Pindus flocks/ Let me
stop/ In their long affliction/ That autumn is drawing near/ And I am
Pindus cold/ Everything cold/…I am coming home./”
Almost like a conductor who makes us resonate to small
hypnagogic hallucinations, with a deep mystical core even when
appearances tend to lead us somewhere else, the interior of Baki
Ymeri’s poems barely succeeds in hiding an erotic and religious
Bohemian soul. “Leave me alone/ God let it be that/ I and the trees/
Love/ To undress/ In the dark./ Come here, dearest/ We are the disciples
of light./ We’ll go into dim libraries/ And open the volume/ That best
describes your pride./ Sleep/ Taken by the spoon of eyelids./ Wake
up…!” (On Love)
61
In the yet delicate inner destruction, each poem is ‘a leap into
flames’. Deliberately subterranean – stifled – melancholy accents invade
the micro-structures of each poem. Tiny anecdotical cells are inserted
into the lyrical scaffold fracturing reality under an ever disturbing
imagination: ‘Streets like/ Thirsty open mouths/ To drink/ Our lives/
While your hairpin/ Lies like a discarded decoration/ On the pillow.’
(Hairpin)
The basic characteristic of Baki Ymeri’s poetry that lends it a
very special diction, is, undoubtedly, sincerity. The flood of questions
and anxieties hover oppressively over the poetic discourse and dissolve
in the very atmosphere that the things around us breathe. Baki Ymeri
masterfully handles the solemn art of refined poetic decanting but also
the severity of devouring autoscopy that fled free from a sans rivage
inner season.
(Translation: Aloisia Sorop)
62
MARIUS CHELARU (ROMANIA)
Gjakmarrja – răsuflarea însângerată a
destinului1
În mai toate societăţile tradiţionale s-a construit
din vechime un complex corpus doctrinar al
răzbunării, „justificată” şi prin „coduri” care legiferau/
organizau viaţa zilnică a comunităţilor. Sunt şi azi
locuri în lume în care „coduri” ale răzbunării sunt vii, în
cercuri mai largi sau mai restrânse.
În nord, în satele albaneze din Malesia e Madhe,
gjakmarrja (numită de Kadare „egalitatea sângelui”) era în vigoare, în linii
mari, după vechiul ceremonial. S-au confiscat arme de la populaţie,
conducerea statului a cerut Bisericii să aibă un rol mai activ, cu sprijinul
intelectualilor din zona muntoasă a Malesiei şi din Kosovo s-au organizat
ceremonii de „împăcare a sângelui“, prilej cu care multe familii au închis
„cercul” vendetei. Dar, se pare, încă nu s-a terminat. Kanun-ul încă trăieşte.
„Numai de nu l-aş răni iar, îşi zise Ghiorgu tremurând. Atunci abia
reuşise să plătească despăgubirea pentru rană şi o a doua nereuşită avea să-i
ruineze familia de tot. Moartea, însă, nu se despăgubea.”
Ismail Kadare, Aprilie spulberat
La începutul anilor 90 apărea o „ştire” parcă smulsă din
adâncurile istoriei Balcanilor: gjakmarrja (albaneză: „răzbunarea
sângelui”), vendetta albaneză, nu era nicidecum năpădită de uitare.
După ce în perioada comunistă a fost şi ea în ilegalitate („interzisă”
printr-un decret al lui Enver Hodja), în munţii din nordul Albaniei au
ieşit din nou la lumină vechi obiceiuri reglementate de Kanun! Ndoc
Cefa, directorul teatrului Migheni din Shkodër, preşedinte al consiliului
local, a fost înştiinţat, conform străvechiului ceremonial al gjakmarrja,
că se afla în „cercul răzbunării“. Evenimentul nu era singular.
Mediatizat, a stârnit discuţii.
Ndoc Cefa a aflat cum, cu mulţi ani în urmă, într-o dispută
pornită cine mai ştie cum între familia Cefa şi o alta de munteni a
1
Ismail Kadare, Florile îngheţate din martie, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003 şi Aprilie
spulberat, Polirom, 2004, la ambele volume traducerea: Marius Dobrescu.
63
izbucnit un conflict. Nu mai putea fi stins decât cu sânge. Şi, ca în multe
asemenea cazuri, s-a propagat peste timp, împovărând mai multe
generaţii deoarece conflictul nu era considerat stins, adesea, decât atunci
când o familie nu mai avea urmaşi pe linie bărbătească. Era nu doar o
promisiune – besa1, ci destinul.
Intrat într-un astfel de „cerc al răzbunării”, omul a aflat că avea
două soluţii: să accepte să fie ucis sau să se autoclaustreze în „turnul de
aşteptare“. Această veritabilă instituţie care asigura imunitatea
victimelor a existat, probabil, până către anii ’50 în toate satele
albaneze, dar Shkoder nu avea un asemenea turn. S-a izolat în
apartamentul său timp de peste trei ani. Şi-a îndeplinit îndatoririle de
serviciu prin telefon sau prin curieri.
Apoi s-a „aflat” că în nord, în satele din Malesia e Madhe,
gjakmarrja (numită de Kadare „egalitatea sângelui”– v. M. Dobrescu,
Postfaţă la Aprilie spulberat) era în vigoare, în linii mari, după vechiul
ceremonial2. S-au confiscat arme de la populaţie, conducerea statului a
cerut Bisericii să aibă un rol mai activ3, cu sprijinul intelectualilor din
1
Etimologie incertă; intraductibil. Ardian-Christian Kycyku (Albanezul, 1/ 42 ian. 1997,
Besa – cuvântul de onoare al albanezilor) cita din Kanun, cartea a 7-a, nodul 88, nr.
352: „Jurământul are în vedere două lucruri: a) Îl chema pe Dumnezeu ca martor al
adevărului; b) I se supune greutăţii osândirilor veşnice şi amenzilor vremelnice conform
canonului”. „Jurământul”: Besa, Legământul, Promisiunea. A se vedea şi: Durham,
Edith M., Some Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the Balkans, Londra, 1928; Durham, Edith M., High Albania, Boston, 1985; Gjeçov, Shtjefën, The Code of Lekë
Dukagjini, New York, 1989, Domenico Corradini, H. Broussard, Diritto
consuetudinario albanese, Susan A. McClear, Albanians and their Culture: A Study of
their Defining Character and Uniqueness, teză prezentată la California State University,
2001. Kanun-ul s-a transmis oral; preotul franciscan Konstantin Shtjefën Gjeçov (18731929) l-a fixat în scris, în articole din revista Hylli i Dritës, cu intenţia de a le aduna în
volum. După P. Krasztev, Dukagjini apare, în mod implicit, ca un Moise albanez,
memoria colectivă păstrându-i învăţătura. În notele de subsol, Gjeçov face referiri la
Manu, Dreptul roman, grec, Cele 10 porunci ş.a., din dorinţa de a ridica prestigiul
Kanun-ului, de a releva posibile similitudini. Gjeçov a murit asasinat în 1929, iar mare
parte a muncii sale, nepublicată, s-a pierdut.
2
M. Dobrescu, cel mai cunoscut traducător al lui Kadare în România, scria că, deşi
autorităţile şi Biserica se opun vendetei – care a degenerat, spun bătrânii, pierzându-şi şi
din „atributele bărbăţiei” ce-i confereau o anume demnitate – pare a fi tot mai rău. Au
„intrat” în „cercul” gjakmarrja copii, ucişi în locul maturilor, femei, tinere fete
„purtătoare de armă” în familiile care nu mai au bărbaţi. Altă abatere de la kanun, care
cere puşca, „glonţul unic“ este folosirea armelor moderne.
3
Preşedintele Albaniei, Alfred Moisiu, a mulţumit papei Ioan Paul al II-lea pentru
ajutorul dat de preoţii catolici.
64
zona muntoasă a Malesiei şi din Kosovo s-au organizat ceremonii de
„împăcare a sângelui“, prilej cu care multe familii au închis „cercul”
vendetei. Dar, se pare, încă nu s-a terminat. Kanun-ul încă trăieşte1.
În mai toate societăţile tradiţionale s-a construit din vechime un
complex corpus doctrinar al răzbunării, „justificată” şi prin „coduri”
care legiferau/ organizau viaţa zilnică a comunităţilor. Sunt şi azi locuri
în lume unde „coduri” ale răzbunării sunt vii, în cercuri mai largi sau
mai restrânse: vendetta siciliană/ italiană, „răzbunarea sângelui” în
Georgia, în zonele populate de lazi din nordul Turciei, „Pasthun-Tali”,
cu „Badal” (răzbunarea), în zona Paştună din Afghanistan şi Pakistan,
karo-kari în Pakistan (Sind) ş.a.m.d.
Kanun-ul a reglementat de secole viaţa comunităţilor albaneze,
în special a celor din nord (celebri fiind Mirdiţii); au funcţionat, pe
diverse arealuri: Kanun-ul lui Leka Dukagjini – cel mai important, o
variantă „restrânsă” – Kanun-ul Munţilor, Kanun-ul lui Skanderbeg,
Kanun-ul Luberiei ş.a.m.d.
Kanun-ul, Kanuni i Lek Dukagjinit/ Codul lui Lekë Dukagjini
(24 capitole, 159 articole – doar 23 se referă la gjakmarrja, 1263
paragrafe), a fost creat, spune tradiţia2, de fiul prinţului Pal Dukagjini,
Alexandru/ Lekë Dukagjini (1410-1477/1481), care a luptat alături de
Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg şi a fost ucis de turci, la asediul Krujei.
Regatul lui era undeva la N-NE de Shkodra, cu capitala la Lezhë,
incluzând şi zone aflate azi pe teritoriul Serbiei – ex: Zadrima sau
Ulpiana. Codul ar fi fost instituit/ ar fi încă vigoare pentru albanezii
nordici, în aria numită şi acum Kanuni. S-a spus şi că acest cod ar fi/ ar
avea izvoare mai vechi3.
1
S-a spus că, după Caritas-ul albanez, au ajuns pe rol în Albania peste 5.000 de cazuri
care par a fi răzbunări rituale.
2
Anton B.I. Balotă: niciun document nu atestă cert că Dukagjini ar fi creat acest cod.
3
Anton B.I. Balotă, în Albania şi albanezii, Bucureşti 1936 aprecia că o analiză a
Kanun-ului arată că nu poate fi opera unui legislator ci, cel mult, o codificare a unor
cutume şi obiceiuri populare. El scria despre albanologul Ludwig von Thalloczy care, în
Albanische Forschungen, ar fi analizat opiniile unor cercetători care duceau izvoarele
kanun-ului în legile lui Alexandru Macedon, azi pierdute (p. 159). După Giuseppe
Castelletti, Consuetudini e vita sociale nelle montagne albanesi secondo il Kanun i Lek
Dujagjini, în Studi Albanesi, vol. III-IV, Roma, 1934, Dukagjin nu ar fi nici
codificatorul. Dr. Balotă scrie că familia Dukagjin a avut pentru albanezi un rol de prim
plan de prin sec. al XIII-lea, ultimul descendent, convertit la Islam, sfârşind în sec. al
XVI-lea. Unele legende duc originile codului („expresia şi reflectarea caracterului
albanez, întruchipând moralitatea extremă, lipsa totală a compromisului, bazat pe
65
Unii au pus succesul lui Kadare pe seama dorinţei Occidentului
de a promova „ceva nou” – un balcanic se potrivea de minune ; alţii pe
seama unui anume exotism pe care îl degajă scrierile lui despre o
Albanie care amintea de vremuri pogorîte în uitare – Imperiul Otoman,
paşale, kanun, lupte pentru ţeluri azi de neînţeles, ieniceri, tradiţii
străvechi, uitate; poate şi un decor uneori antic sau cvasi-medieval,
alteori aparent modern, dar „altfel” etc. Ar putea fi un motiv, dar e prea
puţin. Mai curînd ar putea fi sinceritatea cu care „citeşte” lumea din care
vine faţă în faţă cu „cealaltă”. Scriitorul este preocupat şi de întrebări
precum: ce este/ cum se manifestă kanun-ul, preceptele lui într-o
societate modernă. A abordat subiectul în mai multe proze, dintre care:
Florile îngheţate din martie, Aprilie spulberat, Cine a adus-o pe
Doruntina.
În nuvela Cine a adus-o pe Doruntina, scrisă în 1979, avem o
explicaţie a condiţiilor în care s-a născut kanun-ul, o încercare de a-i
justifica necesitatea. Pentru căpitanul Stresi, codul a fost un element de
stabilitate, chiar moralitate/ progres în/ pentru comunităţile muntenilor
din nordul Albaniei, chiar un veritabil scut moral în faţa invaziei
otomane. Erau vremuri dramatice, cînd structurile statale nu aveau
autoritate: nu erau parte din traiul de zi cu zi, din fiinţa albanezului, erau
impuse din afară. Kanun-ul, în viziunea lui Kadare, a fost un liant care a
ajutat individul să se autodisciplineze şi, printr-o educaţie dură, mai ales
liber acceptată cu toată rigiditatea ei, poporul albanez a păşit peste
pericole în timp.
În Florile îngheţate din martie, Albania anului 2000 este
bulversată de reînvierea acestui „cod de onoare” de sorginte medievală,
deci anacronică, în încercarea societăţii, mai ales din satele de munte,
ieşită brusc de sub dictatură, de a regăsi „ordinea”. Societatea din
romanul lui Kadare creionează nu doar imaginea epocii postcomuniste,
justiţie, onoare şi respect faţă de sine şi de alţii” - Fox, Leonard, Introduction, în Gjeçov,
S., The Code…) la vechii iliri şi Legile lui Manu. Amintind dificultatea stabilirii originii
familiei Dukagjini şi posibile similitudini între kanun şi coduri caucaziene, Péter
Krasztev, în The Price of Amnesia. Interpretations of vendetta in Albania, 1999, scria că
izvorul poate fi şi în Caucaz dar, cel mai probabil, alcătuitorii kanun-ului s-au inspirat de
la otomani. Se ştie că în Imperiul otoman codurile de legi se numeau kanun – nu este de
neglijat că acest cod „al lui Lek Dukagjini” (acceptat o vreme pe teritoriile unde azi
sunt: Shkodra, Gjakovo, Kosovo, Muntenegru şi Macedonia), ca şi altele „minore”,
asociate cu numele altor familii aristocratice, au apărut în secolul XV, în faţa presiunii
lui Mahomed Cuceritorul.
66
ci şi a uneia în care timpurile se „amestecă” cu probleme general-umane
şi, în ultimă instanţă, eterne: de pildă crima, conştientizarea ei la nivel
social/ individual, necesitatea purificării de abominabil pentru restabilirea/ păstrarea necesarului echilibru moral. Kadare apelează la
simboluri, alegorii complexe, dar şi la judecata în profunzime a unei
societăţi care ajunsese brusc la limita suportabilului, în pragul
descompunerii/ dezumanizării sub forme incredibil de variate.
Pictorul Marku Gurabardhi asistă la ivirea parcă din neant a
unei lumi halucinante, cu răpiri, trupe NATO, firme private care dau
totul peste cap, o prosperitate inimaginabilă altădată, prostituţie, lux dar
şi o crimă ciudată: asasinarea de către un necunoscut a directorului
Casei de cultură din oraş, Marian Shkreli, în faţa casei sale. Aidoma
atâtor altora, a înţeles greşit ce reprezenta acest cod de legi (nu se mai
respectă regulile, se „justifică” asasinate prin kanun etc.) în zilele
noastre, când, a re-învia practici medievale, este un lucru aproape
imposibil, cel puţin în teorie. Va lua decizii tot mai ciudate legate (şi) de
cine ar trebui să facă parte din cercul răzbunării. Autorităţile intră în
priză, lumea emite cele mai aiuritoare ipoteze, ziarele aşişderea, pentru a
se constata că omul a fost ucis în contul unei „datorii” de sânge, veche
de cincizeci de ani a familiei sale, munteni la origine, faţă de altă
familie. Finalul nu pare a lăsa să se vadă vreo cale de ieşire.
Aprilie spulberat este o poveste tristă din anii 1930-1940, în
opinia mea una dintre cele mai frumoase proze scrise de Ismail Kadare.
Autorul spunea: „Am scris Aprilie spulberat pe vremea când Albania, ca
şi întreaga lume comunistă, avea un sistem juridic şi un cod penal
socotite printre cele mai inumane de pe planetă. În faţa acestei justiţii…,
vechiul cod cutumiar albanez, kanun-ul, nu numai că nu părea din nou
barbar, ci, din contră, era uimitor de democratic.”
Kanun-ul, pe care timpul nu-şi apăsase fruntea şi preceptele (ne
interesează mai ales partea referitoare la gjakmarrje, extrem de precisă,
riguroasă) şlefuite de împrejurări, ţine de illo tempore, în afara lumii/
civilizaţiei, dar şi a braţului legii consfinţite de stat în ţinutul muntos din
nordul Albaniei. Singura autoritate pe care o recunosc comunităţile
rurale - kanun-ul, iar reprezentantul lui în ochii oamenilor este Prinţul
din Orosh.
Textul poate fi privit pe trei paliere: 1. în viziunea muntenilor
(în principal Gjorgu), 2. a prinţului/ „intendentului sângelui”/ a celor
cca. 200 de „străjuitori” care vegheau la respectarea codului pe platou,
67
ca Binak Alia; 3. a celor doi orăşeni (scriitorul şi soţia lui) – din afara
acestei lumi.
Drama tânărului Gjorgu este abordată în paralel cu analiza
kanun-ului. Pentru un „pocinog la o nuntă” a primit de la tatăl său două
săptămâni de temniţă. O dată pe zi, sora sa îi aducea un opaiţ şi o bucată
de pâine. Iată cum a fost privit după ce tatăl i-a spus să iasă în sat, „să
afle lumea că este liber”: „la început n-a ştiut unde să se ascundă de
ruşine dar, mai apoi, întâlnindu-şi prietenii şi văzând că şi fetele îl
priveau acum altfel… s-a simţit mai fericit ca niciodată”. Pedepse erau
multe: „izolarea sau despreunarea, cum se numea ea în kanun, nd omul
era îndepărtat pentru totdeauna de ai săi (izolat la necaz, la bucurie şi la
fărâma de pâine, se spunea). Lăsarea pământului în paragină, însoţită de
tăierea livezii. Înfometarea (în familie). Interdicţia de a purta arma o
săptămână sau două. Legarea şi ferecarea în casă. Pierderea stării sociale
a bărbatului sau femeii.” Iar dacă nesocoteau kanun-ul - „Existaseră
cazuri de indivizi osândiţi de familiile lor, de familii întregi ostracizate
de obştea satului, chiar de cătune rebele supuse represaliilor mai multor
sate.” Dar „în satul lor… totul se petrecuse conform kanun-ului şi era
greu de imaginat că cineva ar fi putut să-l ignore.” Pentru Gjorgu,
implicat fără voie în cercul morţii, lumea era împărţită în două: „o parte
care orbecăia în cercul gjakmarjjei şi o alta, care se afla în afara lui.” Se
întreba „cum o fi viaţa pentru cei care nu au nimic de răzbunat, cum se
trezesc, cum se culcă?” În viziunea lui „pete mari de sânge acopereau
lumea. Sângele înroşea zăpada, petele creşteau şi îngheţau pretutindeni.”
Oricine avea două opţiuni: să fie bărbat sau să se dezonoreze. Dar, se
întreba Gjorgu, ştiind că nu se poate trăi în afara obştii: „Chiar sunt
liber?” Onoarea „se află chiar în mijlocul frunţii, pentru că acela e locul
în care glonţul tău poate lovi ţeasta celuilalt, glonţul celuilalt ţeasta ta”.
Oricine ucisese pentru răzbunare plătea „birul pentru mort” (de
reţinut imaginea „sălii de aşteptare”, cu cei care veniseră să plătească
„birul”, discuţiile lor). Kulla din Orosh, locul unde sălăşluia Prenk/
Prinţul (după Besian: kapidan/ căpitanul) era singurul loc de pe platou
în afara kanun-ului. Aici trăia Mark Ukacierra, care „administra”
gjakmarjja, „intendentul sângelui”. Pentru el, scăderea numărului
ucişilor era ceva catastrofal. El ţinea „Cartea sângelui”, veche ca şi
Kulla din Orosh, în care sunt toate „datoriile de sânge”, toate numele
celor ucişi. El ştia că între 1611-1628 fusese cel mai mare număr de
ucişi din secol, 1639 – cel mai mic, 722 pe întregul Platou, deşi muriseră
mulţi în două răscoale crunte, dar acesta era sânge „vărsat în afara
68
kanun-ului.” Pentru el, anul era prost, început cu o zi fără morţi. Plănuia
o călătorie în care să se întâlnească cu „străjuitorii”, să „redreseze”
situaţia.
Pentru Besian şi Diana totul pleacă de la un plan ajuns subiect
monden: „Un eveniment încântător: scriitorul Besian Vorps şi tânăra lui
soţie, Diana, au hotărât să-şi petreacă luna de miere în masivul din
nord!” Diana credea „că tot ce se spunea despre munţi avea un sens
dublu şi vag”, iar pentru Besian era o călătorie cu totul alte semnificaţii
decât pentru Gjorgu, o călătorie „precum Ulise în împărăţia lui Hades”,
un drum în „ţinutul legendelor”, unde „oamenii… asemenea copacilor
însemnaţi pentru a fi doborâţi, poartă cu ei semnul morţii”. Murana1 era
„ceva” care trebuia/ merita văzut, kanun-ul „o adevărată constituţie a
morţii” dar, „oricât de sălbatic şi de nemilos”, trebuie să-i facă pe
albanezi să fie mândri că l-au zămislit. Şi, pentru că era vorba doar
despre o discuţie intelectuală, pentru Besian codul era „dincolo de bine
şi de rău”, Gjorgu - un „Hamlet al munţilor noştri”.
Pentru Diana (indispusă de Ukacierra; acesta era speriat de
frumuseţea ei), mai ales după ce îl vede pe Gjorgu, Platoul capătă un alt
chip. Fascinat de ea, Gjorgu uită chiar şi de moarte şi pleacă spre locul
unde i s-a spus că i-ar putea întâlni trăsura. Dar glonţul morţii îl ajunge
din urmă când „în aer se simţea prima clătinare a amurgului”, în acea
seară de „aprilie spulberat” în care în mintea-i trăia numai chipul iubirii
sale, platonice, pe care o zărise abia o clipită.
O lume greu de înţeles, misterioasă şi însângerată, aproape
uitată (zugrăvită într-un limbaj limpede, de o poezie remarcabilă), a
cărei schimbare este prezisă de replici ca cea a unui personaj din Florile
îngheţate din martie, când a înţeles imposibilitatea concilierii vechiului
cod cu sfârşitul de secol XX: „Mai bine fără kanun, decât cu un kanun
ciuntit”.
1
Murana: mormânt primitiv; se marca cu o grămadă de pietre locul în care fusese ucis/
înmormântat un om.
69
Gjakmarrja – the bloodied breath of destiny1
In most traditional societies there is an intricate doctrine of the
concept of revenge, "justified" or regulated within the framework of
daily life customs of a given community. Even nowadays, there are
places in the world where the revenge doctrine is still alive.
In the north, in the Albanian villages of Malesia and Madhe,
gjakmarrja (named by Kadare "the blood equality") is still followed in
the old style. Weapons have been confiscated, the Church's
involvement was requested, intelectuals from Malesia and Kosovo
have organized ceremonial "blood peace-making", and many families
have decided to close the circle of revenge. Despite of all this, it seems
that the Kanun is still alive!
"If I could only avoid hurting him", Ghiorgu was shakily saying. He
has just finished paying the levy on the first wound so a second wound
would bring his family in ruin. And there was no payout on death".
Ismail Kadare, Behind the Sun (Shattered April)
At the begining of the 1990s, "news" seemingly from the depth of
the Balkans history were announcing: gjakmarrja (Albanian, "revenge
of the blood"), the Albanian vendetta ("revenge of the blood") was still
alive. Declared illegal and "interdicted" by decree by Enver Hodja
during Communism, now these old customs regulated by the Kanun
were coming once again to life!
Ndoc Cefa, the Director of the theater Migheni from Shkodër, was
announced according to the old rules of gjakmarrja, that he has been
placed in the "circle of revenge". An old dispute between his family and
another has reached the tipping point. It could only be settled by blood.
His situation was not unique. With the atention from the media, the
resurgence of these old customs have captured public's attention.
In most of these cases, the conflict is propagated over time, across
generations, until, in general, one of the families has no other male left
in the lineage. And this is not just a declared conflict, a "promise" –
besa2, but true destiny. Once in this circle, a person can either accept to
1
Ismail Kadare, Frozen flowers of March, Iaşi, Polirom, 2003 and Shuttered April,
Polirom, 2004; both translated by Marius Dobrescu.
2
Uncertain etymology. See Ardian-Christian Kycyku (The Albanian, 1/ 42 Jan. 1997,
Besa – the word of honor of the Albanians) who is citing from Kanun, 7th book, section
70
be killed or can try to survive by retreating in the "waiting tower". These
"institutions" existed all the way through the 1950s in most Albanian
villages, but Shkoder did not have such a tower. He had to find refuge in
his apartment, not leaving it for three years! He continued his job duties
by phone or through messengers.
In the north, in the Albanian villages of Malesia and Madhe,
gjakmarrja (named by Kadare "the blood equality” – M. Dobrescu,
Endnote to Shuttered April) is still followed in the old style. Weapons
have been confiscated, the Church's involvement was requested1,
intelectuals from Malesia and Kosovo have organized ceremonial
"blood peace-making", and many families have decided to close the
circle of revenge. Despite of all this, it seems that the Kanun is still
alive!2
In most traditional societies there is an intricate doctrine of the
concept of revenge, "justified" or regulated within the framework of
daily life customs of a given community. Even nowadays, there are
places in the world where the revenge doctrine is still alive: the Sicilian
/ Italian vendetta, the "revenge of the blood" in Georgia, and in lazipopulated regions of Northern Turkey, "Pasthun-Tali", with "Badal"
(The Revenge), in Pashtun areas from Afghanistan and Pakistan, karokari in Pakistan (Sind) and so on.
Kanun-ul has regulated for centuries the life of Albanian
communities, especially in the North (Mirdiţii being the most known).
With the full name of Kanuni i Lek Dukagjinit/ The Code of Lekë
Dukagjini (24 chapters, 159 articles – of which only 23 are referring to
gjakmarrja, about 1263 paragraphs), the Kanun was created, according
88, article 352: „The word of honor implies: a) God is called as witness of the truth; b)
The person will be under eternal punishment and under ephemeral taxes according to the
Code". See also Durham, Edith M., Some Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the
Balkans, Londra, 1928; Durham, Edith M., High Albania, Boston, 1985; Gjeçov,
Shtjefën, The Code of Lekë Dukagjini, New York, 1989, Domenico Corradini, H.
Broussard, Diritto consuetudinario albanese, Susan A. McClear, Albanians and their
Culture: A Study of their Defining Character and Uniqueness, Thesis, California State
University, 2001. The Kanun was transmitted through oral tradition; the franciscan
priest Konstantin Shtjefën Gjeçov (1873-1929) put it into writing. Gjeçov was killed in
1929 and a large part of his work was lost.
1
The Albanian President, Alfred Moisiu, has thanked to the Pope John Paul II for the
help provided by the Catholic priests.
2
It is said that after the demise of a large, get-rich quick, pyramid scheme, in Albania
there were over 5,000 cases of what seems to be Code killings.
71
with the tradition1, by the son of Prince Pal Dukagjini, Alexander/ Lekë
Dukagjini (1410-1477/1481), which fought next to Gjergj Kastrioti
Skanderbeg and was killed by the Turks during the assiege of Krujei.
His kingdom was somewhere N-NE of Shkodra, with the capital at
Lezhë, and it included areas found today within Serbia's territory – such
as Zadrima and Ulpiana. The Code was put into effect originally in an
area named even nowadays Kanuni. It is believed that the Code could
have even older roots2.
Some put Kadare's success on the desire of the West to promote
novelty - a writer from the Balkans would be a good choice. Others
consider that it is due to the exotic nuances of his writings about
forgotten times in Albania - the Ottoman empires, pashas, janissaries,
kanun and other old traditions; the decor was different as well - antique
or quasi-medieval or seemingly modern but still different. These are
good reasons but they are not enough. The writer is preoccupied with
many questions: what is kanun, how is it practiced, how did it transform
to fit into the modern society? He will approach this subject in several
writings like "Frozen flowers of March", "Behind the Sun (Shuttered
April)", "Who brought along Doruntina?"
In the novel Who brought along Doruntina? (1979), we are
explained the conditions in which the kanun has appeared, and the need
for it trying to be justified. For Captain Stresi, the Code is an element of
stability and morality for the northern Albanians, even a "shield" in the
face of the Ottoman invasion. Given the dramatic times, when the State
did not have any authority, the kanun has acted as a ligand; it helped the
individual to self-discipline and the Albanian people to overcome trying
times along history.
In Frozen flowers of March Albania of year 2000 is flabergasted
by the revival of this "honor code" of medieval origin, hence
anachronic, code used by the mountain village communities to find the
1
Anton I. Balotă: there is not document indicating Dukagjini to have created the Code.
A.I. Balotă, in Albania and the Albanians, Bucureşti 1936 concludes that the Kanun
was not conceived by a lawmaker but it was rather a gathering of traditional customs
and norms. Péter Krasztev, in The Price of Amnesia. Interpretations of vendetta in
Albania, 1999, was writing that the Kanun could be of Caucasian origin but, more
probable, it was perhaps inspired by the ottoman Turks. Firstly, inside the Ottoman
Empire the laws are called kanun. Secondly, the territories where the Code was enforced
(Shkodra, Gjakovo, Kosovo, Muntenegru and Macedonia and others) have formed
during the 15th century, in the face danger represented by the Mahommed Conquestor.
2
72
"order" in a world without communist dictatorship. The society
described in Kadare's novel is not only an image of a post-communism
world but also one in which different periods of time are yet similar due
to the commonality of the human issues: commiting a crime, its impact
at the social/individual level, the rejection of hatred as a requirement for
reaching again a moral equilibrium. Kadare is using simbols and
complex metaphors but also direct and profund analysis of a society on
the brink of becoming inhumane in many aspects.
The painter Marku Gurabardhi witnesses the apparition out of
nowhere of a strange world, a world with kindnappings, NATO troups,
private companies changing the rules, prostitution, riches, and along
with it all a strange crime: the murder of the director of the Cultural
Center in front of his own home. The laws do not mean much when
crime is justified by the law of kanun. The authorities are engaged, wild
hypotheses are being vehiculated before finding out the truth: the
murder was onto the account of a blood „debt” his family had for the
past fifty years.
Behind the Sun (Shuttered April) is a sad story placed in the
1930-1940 period and, in my opinion, contains some of the best prose
written by Ismail Kadera. The author mentions: „I wrote Shuttered April
when Albania, like the rest of the communist world, had one of the most
inhumane penal codes. Given this situation ... the kanun does not seem
as barbarian anymore but rather quite democratic”.
The Kanun might seem illo tempore, outside of the world and
civilization, outside of the government control here, in the mountains of
northern Albania. It is however the only authority recognized by the
locals and its enforcer is the Prince of Orosh. This reality is observed
from three different perspectives: 1 – that of the local people (character
Gjorgu), 2 – that of the Prince/ „The Blood Superintendent”/ whose 200
or so of „employees”, like Binak Alia, where actually controlling the
law’s enforcement, and 3 – that of the two urbanites (the writer and his
wife), characters outside of the world being studied.
The drama of the young Gjorgu develops in parallel with the
analysis of the kanun. For a "small mistake at one wedding", he was
given by his father two weeks of isolation; once a day his sister would
only bring him a candle and a piece of bread. There were many ways to
be punished according to the kanun: isolation, forbid from working your
own plot of land, cutting down of the fruit trees, hunger enforcement,
forbid from carrying a weapon, downgrading of the social status and so
73
on. And should one disobey the kanun, the death would be brought upon
the whole family, or families or entire villages, whatever the case might
be. For Gjorgu, suddenly inside the circle of death, beyond his will, the
world is divided in two parts: "one stumbling blindly inside the circle of
gjakmarjjei, and the other outside of the circle".
Who would kill for revenge would have to pay the "tax of the
dead" (remarcable the scene of the "waiting room" of those who came to
pay the "tax"). Kulla from Orosh region (where Prenk, the Prince, had
his own estate) was the only place outside of the kanun. Here was living
Mark Ukacierra, the one who was "managing" the gjakmarjja. For him a
decline in the number of the killed was a terrible thing. He was keeping
the "blood book", as old as the Kulla village itself. He knew that the
largest number of killings took place in the 1611 - 1628 periods, while
the smallest number (722) was recorded in 1639.
Many have died in uprisings too but this was blood "outside of
the kanun". For him a bad day was one without a dead person. He was
planning a trip to meet with his "guardians" to "remedy" the situation.
Everything is tied together by an event, presented as news in the
urban society down south: "A great endeavour: the writer Besian Vorps
and his young wife, Diana, have decided to spend their honeymoon up
north!" Diana was intrigued [about the place] as everything said about
the northern mountains was vague and maybe with double meaning,
while for Besian it was a journey in the "land of legends [where] people,
like the trees marked for cutting, are wearing the signs of death".
Murana1 was "something" to be seen, the kanun, a true "Constitution of
death" which might make the Albanians proud no matter how cruel it
might be. For Diana (unsettled by Ukacierra which was scared of her
beauty), the northern mountains will gain a new image after the meeting
with Gjorgu. Gjorgu in his turn is forgetting about the death threat and
he is leaving his hideout in order to have a chance to meet her again.
The bullet of death will catch up with him as "the dusk started breathing
through the air" in that evening of a "shuttered April"; the last image in
his mind was that of the women he just fell in love with after seeing her
just for a fleeting moment.
This is a world difficult to understand, misterious and bloody,
almost forgotten (depicted in clear writting and yet of a remarkable
1
Murana: primitive grave; the place were a person was killed or buried was simply
marked with a heap of large stones.
74
poetry), a world whose changing ways are reflected by the characters,
similar to the ones in Frozen flowers of March which are realizing that
the old Code is not compatible with the end of the twentieth century:
"Better without kanun, than with a mutilated kanun".
MIRCEA MUTHU (ROMÂNIA)
Konstandin şi Doruntina
O bună parte din epica modernă a sud-estului
european moşteneşte balansul între mit şi istorie,
ba mai mult, îl transcrie la scara unei epopei suigeneris. E vorba, mai exact, de re-constituirea
drumului finalizat în constructul legendar sau mitic
şi, pe de altă parte, de un sens invers, demitizator
şi asta într-o mişcare epică de sistolă şi diastolă,
ce conferă prozei din acest spaţiu forţă epopeică recuperatorie şi un
pitoresc funcţional. Dacă prima mişcare menţine naraţiunea pe firul
respiraţiei folclorice, a doua, desacralizantă, ne trimite la epoca modernă,
lipsită adesea de ingenuitate şi credinţă.
Faptul că memoria colectivă urmează cu stricteţe traseul fixat de
gândirea mitică şi, mai exact, că istoricitatea nu rezistă multă vreme la
acţiunea corosivă a mitului este evident în mişcarea pendulară din
eposul folcloric. Într-o conferinţă din 1951 ce anticipa cunoscutele
Aspecte ale mitului (1962), Mircea Eliade extrăgea numeroase
exemplificări demonstrând că în poemele sârbeşti, de pildă, „pentru a se
fixa în memoria colectivă, evenimentele şi personajele unui episod sunt
atât de modificate încât, pierzându-şi caracterul individual, regăsesc
arhetipurile eterne ale mitului (Mircea Eliade, Mit şi istorie în literatura
populară, în Jurnalul literar, nr. 1, 2001). Cutare erou, un Marko
Krajlevici să zicem, este croit după un tipar exemplar, el aglutinând
comportamente şi fapte atestate, altfel, într-o istorie seculară; în bâlinele
ruseşti, tătarii sunt asimilaţi, ca în poveşti, balaurilor, iar expediţia lui
Alexandru cel Mare este proiectată pe căutările Argonauţilor – condiţii
sine qua non pentru reţinerea lor în imaginarul folcloric. La fel se
75
explică probabil dualismul din istoriografia elină care, în răstimpul de
un mileniu şi mai bine, alterna între restituirea evenimentului, aşa cum a
fost, şi tentaţia de a-l inventa, aşadar o ezitare între adevăr şi ficţiune.
Or, o bună parte din epica modernă a sud-estului european moşteneşte
acest balans între mit şi istorie, ba mai mult, îl transcrie la scara unei
epopei sui-generis. E vorba, mai exact, de re-constituirea drumului
finalizat în constructul legendar sau mitic şi, pe de altă parte, de un sens
invers, demitizator şi asta într-o mişcare epică de sistolă şi diastolă, ce
conferă prozei din acest spaţiu forţă epopeică recuperatorie şi un
pitoresc funcţional. Dacă prima mişcare menţine naraţiunea pe firul
respiraţiei folclorice, a doua, desacralizantă, ne trimite la epoca
modernă, lipsită adesea de ingenuitate şi credinţă. Am arătat, în acest
context, construcţia similară a două romane – E un pod pe Drina (Ivo
Andrić) şi Podul cu trei arcade (Ismail Kadare) – ce au fructificat în
chip memorabil legenda despre Meşterul Manole. Debutând sub semnul
lui „se spune”, cele două istorisiri ample, sârbească şi albaneză,
deconspiră, anihilează chiar, mitul despre imolarea unei fiinţe omeneşti
la baza podului ridicat peste Drina sau peste „Uijana cea blestemată”, ca
să-l refacă apoi, o dată cu evocarea câtorva destine şi evenimente
dramatice, fixate în memoria paginii de istorie sud-estică şi naţională.
Polarizarea, atât de puternică în creaţia răsăriteană, se regăseşte şi în
reflexele occidentale. E cazul, exemplar şi acesta, al uneia dintre
„nuvelele orientale” ale lui Marguerite Yourcenar. Laptele morţii (1929)
se construieşte la fel, pe disputa dintre ficţiune (mit/legendă) şi adevărul
istoric, deşi în absenţa planului simbolic, de fundal (Cf. lucrarea noastră
Călcâiul lui Delacroix, ed. Libra, Bucureşti, 1996, pp.115-120
(„Laptele morţii”).
Similitudinile enunţate aici şi tratate aiurea îşi lărgesc evantaiul
în mod considerabil, ele acoperă un perimetru aş spune ideal pentru
cercetările de comparatistică. Extrag, spre exemplificare, subiectul
„logodnicului strigoi” transcris în balada generic intitulată Călătoria
fratelui mort şi prezentă în folclorul tuturor popoarelor sud-est europene
cu aceeaşi încărcătură tragică, indiferent că „resurecţia” fratelui mort e
provocată de „blestemul mamei” sau, ca în variantele sârbo-croate, de
„blestemul surorii”. Voica la români, Konstandini şi Garentina, la
albanezi, Călătoria nocturnă la sârbi ş.a. dezvăluie „vedenii şi închegări
76
simbolice” (Lucian Blaga)1 asemănătoare, inventariate şi comparate pe
segmentul folcoric de un şir de învăţaţi, de la Şişmanov şi Caracostea la
Tache Papahagi şi Adrian Fochi. Dincolo de contaminări şi înrudiri
structurale, balada despre călătoria nocturnă a fratelui mort ilustrează
credinţa balcanicului în eficacitatea blestemului şi, prin extrapolare, în
rolul jucat aici de magia cuvântului. Având la origine un cântec bizantin
din Asia Mică (Politis), balada, ca şi mitul despre jertfa zidirii,
alimentează literaturile din veacul trecut, plasabile – prin unitatea de
motiv – în arealul confluenţelor. Dacă, de pildă, prelucrarea lui Blaga în
pantomima Înviere (1925) nu depăşeşte totuşi valoarea unui exerciţiu de
digitaţie, cu toate culorile tari ale atmosferei de apocalipsă, nuvela lui
Kadare, Konstandin şi Doruntina (1979) rămâne exemplară sub un
dublu raport, respectiv asimilarea integrală a modelului folcloric
(Konstandini şi Garentina), apoi însumarea şi amplificarea
semnificaţiilor pe aceeaşi linie de subtilă ezitare între demitizare şi
remitizare. Prozatorul albanez reţine, asemeni lui Blaga, „blestemul
mamei”, alături de antroponimul Constantin, ce leagă între ele
versiunile sud-estice ale baladei. Mai mult, naraţiunea modernă referă la
dialectica gândirii colective, despre care vorbea Mircea Eliade. Moartea
stranie a Doamnei Mame şi a Doruntinei, abia întoarsă acasă pe timp de
noapte, aduce cu sine ritualul funebru, marcat de corul bocitoarelor.
„Sub ochii noştri se naşte o legendă”, afirmă Stresi, cel însărcinat cu
anchetarea cazului enigmatic. „Până alaltăieri, continuă acesta, bocetul
n-avea nimic neobişnuit, aseară însă şi mai ales azi a căpătat forma unei
autentice legende” (Ismail Kadare, Aprilie spulberat, traducere, cuvânt
înainte şi note de Marius Dobrescu, Univers, Bucureşti, 1990). Tot ceea
ce urmează în plan evenimenţial reiterează acest proces, secondat, e
adevărat, de contrapunctul modern al îndoielii ce demontează: „Toată
povestea aceasta, despre care se poate spune că este extrem de stranie, sar putea explica în două feluri: sau cineva, dintr-un motiv sau altul, ar fi
minţit-o pe Doruntina dându-se drept fratele ei Konstandin, sau chiar
Doruntina, nu ştim de ce, ocoleşte adevărul şi tăinuieşte modul în care sa întors sau pe cel care a adus-o.” De aici, supoziţia, dezvoltată epic, a
relaţiei adulterinei (şi condamnată cu asprime în vechiul kanun albanez)
şi, de asemenea, ipoteza „incestului neînfăptuit, /care/ stăruie dincolo de
mormânt”. Cineva opinează că, la căsătoria soră-si, Konstandin şi-a spus
1
Cf. lucrarea noastră Lucian Blaga, dimensiuni răsăritene, ed. Paralela 45, 2002, pp.
37-41 (Inserţia folclorică).
77
că a scăpat de obsesia incestului”, dar cum aceasta nu poate fi stinsă nici
de moarte, „călătoria lor macabră nu este altceva decât o călătorie de
nuntă”. Interpretarea aceasta, lizibilă într-adevăr în filigranul unor
variante populare, reactivează părerea mai veche a lui D. Caracostea (şi
combătută de Tache Papahagi în Paralele folclorice, 1970), după care
balada s-ar fi născut dintr-un „coşmar erotic incestuos”. Ambele
explicaţii se împletesc prin amplificări succesive: prima, despre relaţia
adulterină a Dorutinei, e „confirmată” de un martor inventat de fapt de
către Biserică; a doua, referitoare la „incestul neînfăptuit”, survine în
urma consultării trudnice a unei arhive impresionante, lăsate de
numeroasa şi tragica familie nobiliară din vechea Arberie. Mişcarea
inversă, aceea de re-mitizare îl are ca şi actant principal pe acelaşi
căpitan Stresi, care descoperise naşterea legendei au fur et à mesure, în
vierşul bocitoarelor. Proiecţia în legendar se va consuma însă în alţi
termeni ce particularizează de astă dată spaţiul albanez. Or, această
decolare într-un alt tipar este pregătită de un orizont de aşteptare pe
măsură. Este, mai exact, premisa că „falsa ridicare din morţi a lui
Konstandin n-ar avea nimic de-a face cu el şi nu acolo, la mormânt, în
cimitir s-a nscut povestea asta, ci în însăşi conştiinţa oamenilor, cărora
le-a venit pesemne timpul să se bălăcească în amalgamul de viaţă şi de
moarte, la fel cum îi cuprinde uneori nebunia colectivă”. Starea de
hybris, contextualizată istoric sau religios, este rezolvată prin absorbţia
lui Konstandin „de jurământul acestuia, de besa lui”, iată de ce nu mai
are importanţă dacă s-a ridicat din groapă sau nu. Astfel, conchide
Stresi, „fiecare dintre noi îşi are o parte din el în această călătorie,
deoarece besa lui Konstandin, cea care a adus-o pe Dorutina, a încolţit
aici, printre noi”. Integrată în dreptul cutumiar ţărănesc, în sângerosul
kanun, besa transcende pe vii şi pe morţi, reglând viaţa comunitară
albaneză până în epoca modernă. „Aş spune că, încheie retoric Stresi, pe
Dorutina aducând-o Konstandin, am adus-o noi toţi, eu, morţii noştri ce
se odihnesc în jurul bisericii”. În raport cu produsul folcloric, „mortul
înviat” îşi păstrează calitatea de mesager dar cu o altă încărcătură
simbolică – o a doua şansă, după epoca medievală (folclorică), de a-şi
păstra şi permanentiza locul în memoria colectivă. Transcrierea de către
Ismail Kadare a baladei Konstandini şi Garentina nu e cu totul inedită,
întrucât a fost fertilizată de o componentă specifică a culturii populare
albaneze, aceea – observată la noi de către Adrian Fochi – după care
încărcarea jurământului besa are consecinţe şi în viaţa de apoi. Sigur,
legitimările pot fi reciproce, în Aprilie spulberat, de pildă, tânărul
78
scriitor, aflat în călătorie de nuntă pe platoul din nordul ţării, afirmă că
un important capitol din kanun, acela care se referă la giakmarrje
(vendeta albaneză) „a început să se închege pe vreamea când
Konstandin cel din baladă s-a ridicat din mormânt pentru a-şi împlini
jurământul”. Claviatura modernă a imaginarului, diversificată, îşi asumă
– adesea programatic în literaturile sud-est europene – o anumită
gramatică, etnică sau naţională, cristalizată pe palierul duratei lungi.
Astfel spus, până târziu, adică până spre finele veacului al XX-lea,
„variaţiunile nu fac decât să confirme tema şi asta nu numai în literatura
zisă istorică. Tot în Aprilie spulberat, un personaj care supraveghea
respectarea kanunului „considera că toate cele publicate prin cărţi nu
erau altceva decât leşurile celor povestite oral sau în tovărăşia lăutei”.
Kadare evocă un spaţiu mental în care se produce atât continuitatea, cât
şi ruptura, resimţită ca dramatică, între oralitate şi scriere, între vorba
auzită şi cuvântul scris, între ureche şi ochi. Or, tocmai aici, într-un
asemenea spaţiu pulsatil, înregistrăm alternanţa demitizare/mitizare ce
particularizează o bună parte din proza modernă a sud-estului. Cu atât
mai spectaculoase apar, cu alte cuvinte, continuităţile tematice şi, mai
ales, de viziune: cavalcada nocturnă a „fratelui mort” traversează
imaginarul de la meridianul sud-estic, mereu reactivat de retorica mamei
nemângâiate: „Konstandini, fiul meu,/ Unde-i jurământul tău/ Să-mi
aduci pe Garentina/ Să văd iar în ochi lumina?/ De demult tu mi-ai
jurat,/ Şi se vede c-ai uitat!” (Cetatea Rozafat. Folclor albanez, an
anthology, translation by Focioni Miciacio, Forward by Victor Eftimiu,
Minerva, Bucharest, 1974, pp. 7-10).
(text preluat, cu acordul autorului, din vol. Balcanologie, I, edit. Dacia, 2002)
79
Konstandin and Doruntina
An important part of the modern European South-Eastern epics
inherited this balancing between myth and history and, moreover,
transferred it to the scale of a sui-generis epic. More exactly, this is about
the reconstitution of the finalized journey within the legendary or mythical
construction and, on the other hand, about a reversed sense, of
deconstructing the myth within an epic movement of systole and diastole
that confers on the prose of this area a recuperating epic force and a
functional picturesque. While the first movement maintains the narration
within the folkloric atmosphere, the second one sends us to the modern
epoch which often lacks ingenuity and religious belief.
The fact that the collective memory strictly follows the route of
the mythical thinking and, more exactly, that the historicity does not
resist for long to the corrosive action of the myth, is obvious within the
pendulum-like movement of the folkloric epos. In a 1951 conference
that anticipated the well-known Aspects of the Myth (1962), Mircea
Eliade gave a number of examples demonstrating that, in the Serbian
poems, for instance, “in order to be fixed in the collective memory, the
events and characters of an episode are so modified that, losing their
individual feature, they recover the eternal archetypes of the myth
(Mircea Eliade, Mit şi istorie în literatura populară, in Jurnalul literar,
nr. 1, 2001). Any hero, for instance Marko Krajlevici, is shaped
according to an exemplary pattern, including behaviors and facts,
certified otherwise in a century long history; in the Russian ballads, the
Tatars are assimilated, like in the fairy tales, to the dragons, and the
expedition of Alexander the Great is projected onto the Argonauts’
quests – sine qua non conditions for keeping them in the folkloric
imagination. This might also be the explanation for the dualism in the
Hellenic historiography which, during a period of more than a
millennium, alternated between the restitution of the event as it was, and
the temptation of inventing it, in other words - a hesitation between
truth and fiction. An important part of the modern European SouthEastern epics inherited this balancing between myth and history and,
moreover, transferred it to the scale of a sui-generis epic. More exactly,
this is about the reconstitution of the finalized journey within the
legendary or mythical construction and, on the other hand, about a
reversed sense, of deconstructing the myth within an epic movement of
systole and diastole that confers on the prose of this area a recuperating
80
epic force and a functional picturesque. While the first movement
maintains the narration within the folkloric atmosphere, the second one
sends us to the modern epoch which often lacks ingenuity and religious
belief. We have shown, in this context, the similar construction of two
novels – There Is a Bridge over Drina (Ivo Andrić) and The ThreeArched Bridge (Ismail Kadare) – which memorably fructified the legend
about Master Manole. Both the ample stories, the Serbian and the
Albanian, start under the sign of “They say”, they divulge and even
annihilate the myth of a human being’s sacrifice at the foundation of a
bridge built over Drina or over “the cursed Uijana”, and then they
recompose it by evoking some dramatic destinies and events fixed in the
memory of the south-eastern and national history. The polarization,
which is very strong in the eastern creation, is also present in the
western reflexes. It is the case, also exemplary, of one of Marguerite
Yourcenar’s “oriental short stories”. The Death’s Milk (1929) is built
similarly on the dispute between fiction (myth/ legend) and the historic
truth, even if in the absence of the symbolic, background plan (Cf. our
paper Călcâiul lui Delacroix, Libra, Bucharest, 1996, pp.115-120
(Laptele morţii).
The similitudes mentioned here and studied in different other
works, considerably develop in range, covering an ideal - I would say perimeter of the comparatistics studies. As an example, I would mention
the “ghost fiancée” concept, presented in the ballad of The Dead
Brother’s Journey in the folklore of all the South-Eastern European
peoples in the same tragic keynote, regardless of the cause of the dead
brother’s resurrection: the “mother’s curse” or, in the Serbian-Croatian
versions, the “sister’s curse”. The Romanian Voica, the Albanian
Konstandini and Garentina, the Serbian Nocturnal Journey etc, all
unveil similar “symbolic apparitions and embodiments” (Lucian Blaga)1
catalogued and compared in the folkloric area by a number of scholars,
from Sismanov and Caracostea to Tache Papahagi and Adrian Fochi.
Beyond the contaminations and structural relations, the ballad about the
nocturnal journey of the dead brother illustrates the belief of the Balkan
inhabitants in the curse efficiency and, extrapolating, in the role of the
magic of words. Originating in a Byzantine song from Asia Minor
(Politis), the ballad, the same as the myth of the sacrificial building,
1
Cf. our paper Lucian Blaga, dimensiuni răsăritene, ed. Paralela 45, 2002, pp. 37-41
(Inserţia folclorică) or the 2nd edition, 2002.
81
inspired the literatures of the last century which can be placed in the
area of confluences through their motif unity. If, for instance, Blaga’s
adaptation in the pantomime Resurrection (1925) does not surpass the
value of an exercise in spite of all the strong apocalyptical colors,
Kadare’s short story Konstantin and Dorutina (1979) remains
exemplary in what regards both the integral assimilation of the folkloric
model (Konstandini and Garentina), and the summing up and
amplification of the significances within the same subtle hesitation
between un-mythification and re-mythification. The same as Blaga, the
Albanian narrator keeps the “motherly curse”, and he keeps as well the
anthroponym Constantin, which inter-connects the South-Eastern
versions of the ballad. Moreover, the modern story refers to the
dialectics of the collective thinking mentioned by Mircea Eliade. The
Lady Mother’s and Dorutina’s strange death bring the funeral ritual,
marked by the mourners’ chorus. “A legend is born before our very
eyes”, states Stresi who was in charge of the investigation of the
enigmatic case. “Until the day before yesterday, he continued, the
lament had nothing unusual, last night, though, and especially today, it
took the shape of an authentic legend” (Ismail Kadare, Aprilie spulberat,
translation, forward by Marius Dobrescu, Univers, Bucharest, 1990).
Every event that follows repeats this process, but, to tell the truth, it is
doubled by the modern counterpoint of the dismantling doubt: “All this
story, which one might say is very strange, could be explained in two
ways: either somebody lied to Dorutina for one reason or another,
pretending to be her brother Konstandin, or Dorutina herself avoids the
truth – we do not know why - , and conceals the way she returned, or the
one who brought her back”. Hence, the result is the epically developed
supposition regarding the adulterous relationship (strongly condemned
in the old Albanian Kanun) and, also, the hypothesis of a “not
materialized incest /that/ is transferred in the underworld”. Someone
supposes that, on the occasion of his sister’s marriage, Konstantin
imagined he got rid of the incest obsession, but, as this obsession can be
eliminated not even by death, “their macabre voyage is nothing but a
wedding voyage”. This interpretation, visible indeed in the filigree of
certain folk variants, reactivates D. Caracostea’s older opinion
(combated by Tache Papahagi in Folkloric Parallels, 1970) according to
which the ballad was born from a “heretical incestuous nightmare”.
Both the explanations interweave through successive amplifications: the
first one, about Dorutina’s adulterous relationship, is confirmed by a
82
witness invented in fact by the church, and the second one, regarding the
“not materialized incest”, appears after a laborious research of an
impressive archive belonging to the numerous and tragic noble family of
the old Arberia. The main character of the reverse movement, namely
the re-mythification, is captain Stesi, who had discovered the birth of
the legend au fur et à mesure, in the mourners’ songs. The projection
onto the legend is transposed in a different manner that, this time,
particularizes the Albanian area. This transposition into a new pattern is
prepared by a corresponding expectation. It is, more exactly, the
premise that “Konstantin’s false resurrection has nothing to do with
him, and the story was born not there, at the grave, but in the very
conscience of the people for whom the time may have come to wallow
in the life and death amalgam, the same as the collective madness
sometimes comes over them. The hybris state, contextualized
historically or religiously, is solved by Konstandin’s absorbability “by
his oath, by his besa”, and that is why it is no longer important whether
he was resurrected or not. Thus, concludes Stesi, “each of us has a part
of him in this journey, because Konstandin’s besa, which brought
Dorutina, has arisen here, among us”. Being integrated in the folk
custom law of the bloody kanun, the besa transcends the dead and the
living, regulating the Albanian community life even in the modern
epoch. “I would say – Stesi concludes rhetorically – that Dorutina, being
brought by Konstandin, was brought by us all, by me, by our dead ones
that rest around the church.” As related to the folkloric product, “the
resurrected dead one” keeps his quality of a messenger having though a
different symbolical meaning – a second chance, after the mediaeval
(folkloric) epoch, a chance of keeping a permanent place in the
collective memory. Ismail Kadare’s transcribing of the ballad
Konstandini and Garentina is not totally new as long as it was fertilized
by a specific component of the Albanian culture namely that one - as
noticed by Adrian Fochi – according to which the besa oath defiance
has consequences in the afterlife. Of course, the certifications can be
mutual. In Aprilie spulberat, for instance, the young writer, on his
wedding journey on the plateau in the north, states that an important
chapter of the kanun, that one referring to the giakmarrje (the Albanian
vendetta) “has started to coagulate by the time when Konstandin of the
ballad resurrected from the grave in order to complete his oath.” The
diversified modern range of the imaginary assumes – often
programmatic in the South-Eastern European literatures – a certain
83
ethnical or national grammar, crystallized for a long duration. To put it
differently, by the end of the 20th century, “the variations did nothing
but to confirm the theme and that happened not only in the so-called
historic literature”. Also in Aprilie Spulberat, a character who was
supervising the keeping of the kanun “thought that everything published
in books was nothing but the corpses of the things narrated orally or
accompanied by a guitar”. Kadare evokes a mental space in which both
the continuity and the break – felt as dramatic - are taking place,
between oral and written expressions, between the heard and the written
word, between the ear and the eye. This is exactly where, in such a
pulsating space, can we perceive the de-mythtification/ mythification
alternation that characterizes an important part of the modern prose of
the South-East. In other words, the thematic continuities and, especially,
the visionary ones are the more spectacular: the nocturnal cavalcade of
the “dead brother” crosses the imaginary of the South-Eastern meridian,
permanently reactivated by the rhetoric of the uncomforted mother:
”Son of mine, Konstandini,/ What about your oath to me/ To bring me
Garentina back/ So I may see the light again?/ You swore it to me long
ago,/ And you seem to have forgotten!” (Cetatea Rozafat. Folclor
albanez, an anthology, translation by Focioni Miciacio, Forward by
Victor Eftimiu, Minerva, Bucharest, 1974, pp. 7-10).
(from the volume Balcanologie, I, Dacia Publishing House, ClujNapoca, 2002)
(Translation: Iolanada Manescu)
84
Poezie/ Poetry
BARDHYL LONDO (ALBANIA)
ITAKA
Itaka fle nen qiellin e shtatorit.
Ullinjte si gra qe presin burrat e vonuar ngjajne.
Mua me merr malli per shtepine larg,
per nje grua qe s'do te mbylle syte kete nate
ne Tirane.
Me ndihmo, Odise! Flake tutje mantelen
e legjendes!
Me thuaj nje fjale te mencur, te ngrohte.
Rruget fillojne, humbasin, vrapojne, zhduken
me te ngaterruara se radhet e trikos
se Penelopes.
Rruge, rruge, rruge...
Drejt lindjes, drejt perendimit,
drejt Jonit, drejt Egjeut.
Kohet vertet moderne jane
po fillin prape mund ta humbasesh
si ne shekullin e Odiseut.
Cila, pra me con ne Itaken time?
Cila fjale e qeteson gruan qe pret?
Larg nga sirenat e detit qe prape klithin histerike,
larg nga Circet e shekullit te njezet!
Une kete rruge s'e humbas!
Do ta gjej dhe ne qofsha i verber!
Te gjithe jemi nga pak Odise;
ne mos pacim Penelope,
nje Itake e kemi patjeter!
85
BARDHYL LONDO (ALBANIA)
Ithaca
Ithaca slumbers under the September sky.
The olive trees are like women awaiting their tardy husbands.
I am filled with a longing for my home far away,
For my wife in Tiranë who will not sleep tonight.
Help me, Ulysses! Cast off your legendary cloak!
Tell me something wise, something fervent.
Roads begin, get lost, run forth, disappear
More intricate than the stitching on Penelope's woven gown.
Roads, roads, roads...
To the east, to the west,
To the Ionian, to the Aegean.
The times are indeed modern,
But you can lose the thread again
As in the time of Ulysses.
Which one will take me to my Ithaca?
Which word will calm my waiting wife?
Far from the sirens of the sea screaming hysterically once again,
Far from the Circes of the twentieth century!
I will not lose this road!
I will find it even blind!
We are all a little like Ulysses,
Even if we do not have a Penelope
We do have an Ithaca!
[Itaka, from the volume Si ta qetësoj detin, Tirana: Naim Frashëri
1988, p. 81, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first
published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of modern
Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 171]
86
Lasgush Poradeci
Vdekja e kish harruar. E mahnitur
kish humbur rrugen ne vargun e tij
eremire.
Ate dite qe mbylli syte
gjoli i Poradecit nga habia
si nje lot i madh kish ngrire...
Vetem Itaka mbetet
Kane nderruar anijet. S'jane me si te Odiseut
Kane nderruar dashurite. S'jane me si
......................................te Manelaut
Grate ndryshe jane. S'i ngjajne me Helenes
Dhe prape do te nderrojne ne shekujt
...............................praparendes
Vetem Itaka mbetet
Itaka te femija, Itaka te gjeniu
...ajo, e perjetshmja,
......endrra,
.........dashuria,
............jeta,
...............vdekja:
Itaka - vete njeriu
87
Lasgush Poradeci
Death had forgotten him. Startled,
It lost its way in his fragrant verse.
The day he closed his eyes
The lake at Pogradec in wonder froze over
Like one huge tear...
[Lasgush Poradeci, from the volume Si ta qetësoj detin, Tirana: Naim
Frashëri 1988, p. 34, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and
first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of
modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 167]
Only Ithaca remains
The ships have changed. They are no longer like those of Ulysses.
The love affairs have changed. They are no longer like those of
Menelaus.
The women are different. They are no longer like Helen.
And again the successors will change over the centuries.
Only Ithaca remains.
Ithaca for the child, Ithaca for genius,
It, the eternal,
Dreams,
love,
life,
death:
Ithaca - man himself.
[Vetëm Itaka mbetet, from the volume Si ta qetësoj detin, Tirana: Naim
Frashëri 1988, p. 86, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and
first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of
modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 175]
88
VISAR ZHITI (ALBANIA)
Greve urie
Edhe brenda në burg
ka prapë një burg.
Të fusin brenda
po s'punove p. sh.
Ti, i shtrirë mbi dyshemenë
e birucës së arkivoltë, sot s'hëngre bukë.
As dje. As pardje. As para 3 ditësh.
Që kur mbaroi lufta e dytë botërore.
Dhe s'do hash as nesër, as pasnesër
as i vdekur.
- Ngorthç! - tha polici ditën e parë.
Të dytën u zgërdhi si një çizme e shqyer.
Heshti të tretën.
Njollat e murit i dridheshin mbi fytyrë.
Ditën e katërt: ha! - të tha.
- Ç'ke, të pyeti ditën e pestë.
Pastaj erdhi dita e gjashtë. Në fakt
asgjë s'erdhi. Dita e shtatë u fsheh
pas të nëntës. Viti i parë i Krishtit
u hodh para festave të Nëntorit.
Ditvdekja e diktatorit vononte. Ngulte
këmbë si mushka.
Por erdhën ata të komandës
në birucën tënde.
Kokëposhtë ishin të gjithë. Se
reflektoheshin në pjatën me supë
të ftohtë. Si sy qiklopi - pjata.
Bukën e hanë minjtë që lëvrinin lirshëm nota muzike mbi vijat e ... doktrinës.
89
VISAR ZHITI (ALBANIA)
Hunger strike
Even within prison
There is a prison.
They throw you into it,
For example, if you do not work.
Lying on the floorboards
Of your coffin cell, you have not eaten today,
Nor yesterday, nor the day before yesterday, nor three days ago,
Nor since the Second World War,
Nor will you eat tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow,
Nor when you are dead.
"Go ahead and die!" said the guard on the first day,
On the second he squeaked like a torn boot,
On the third he fell silent.
The stains on the wall trembled in his face.
On the fourth day, he said: "Eat!"
"What's wrong," he said on the fifth.
Then came the sixth day. In fact
Nothing happened. The seventh day hid
Behind the ninth. The first year of Christ
Before the November national holiday.
The death of the tyrant was delayed.
He was as stubborn as an ass.
The men from the command came
to your cell,
All with their heads bowed, reflecting
In the dish of cold soup.
The dish was the eye of the cyclops.
The mice were eating the bread, scampering about,
Musical notes on the scores of... doctrine.
90
Muret
vallzojnë. Herë afrohen, herë largohen.
Një britmë vrapon zbathur
nëpër koridor.
Brumbujt u trembën. Shih si dalin
nga të çarat e kujtesës pa kafkë.
Njolla drite
se nga ranë,
si të vjellat e ditës së sëmurë.
Hekurat e frengjisë sime
Kaq bukur këndoi bilbili
te hekurat e frengjisë sime,
sa dhe hekurat m'u bënë
degë të gjelbra qershie.
Dyshemeja u mbush plot me
cicërima
dhe unë mëgjunjazi
si therrime buke,
si therrime jete
një nga një po i mblidhja.
91
The walls
Dance back and forth,
A cry runs barefoot
Down the corridor.
The cockroaches take fright. Look how they scuttle
Skull-less, out of the seams of memory.
Patches of light from somewhere
Lay in the room
Like vomit from a sick day.
(Saturday, 4 February 1984)
[Grevë urie, from the volume Hedh një kafkë, Tirana 1994, translated
from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]
At the bars of my cell
How sweetly the nightingale sang
Through the iron bars of my window,
Transforming the very iron
into the verdant branches of a cherry tree.
The floor was covered in warbles
And I, on my knees,
Picked them up one by one
Like crumbs of bread,
like crumbs of life.
(in a prison cell, 1980)
[Te hekurat e frengjisë sime, from the volume Kujtesa e ajrit,
Tirana 1993, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie]
92
GEORGI ANGELOV (BULGARIA)
ПОЕЗИЯ
Ниагара
в капката
да опознаеш.
***
Край пътя,
в жегата непоносима,
работи гладен, изтерзан народ
и няма кой
да го свали
от кръста.
***
В най-ниската точка –
да изтърпиш.
При изкачването –
без гордост.
На високото –
готов за слизане.
93
GEORGI ANGELOV (BULGARIA)
Poetry
To get to know
Niagara
in a single drop of water.
***
By the road,
in the heat hardly bearable,
martyrized hungry people are toiling
and no one’s there
to take them down
from the crucifix.
***
At the lowest point,
endurance.
During the ascent,
no pride.
At the top,
readiness for a descent.
94
***
Бяха преди малко гръм и мълнии.
Беше зъл потоп,
море
и бедствие.
После спря.
Земята си отдъхна.
Помнят само корените
всичко.
***
Докато пишех стихове,
зората
дошла полека.
Подреждам листовете,
писалката прибирам
и излизам под небето
да се сверя
с написаното
ЛЕТОПИС НА СЪПРОТИВАТА
Той е от Ню Орлиънс.
Тя е от Багдад.
Дели ги изгнила врата
и два откоса.
95
***
Thunder and lightnings a little ago.
An evil deluge,
a sea,
a disaster.
Then it stopped.
The earth sighed with relief.
Only roots remember it all.
***
I was still writing poetry
and the dawn
had slowly broken.
I arrange the paper,
put the pen away
and go out under the sky
to verify myself
with what’s been written.
Chronicle of the Resistance
He is from New Orleans.
She is from Bagdad.
Only one rotting door
and two bursts of machine-gun fire
between them.
96
VANYA DUSHEVA (BULGARIA)
*
Най-милостивото дърво – кипарисът
врабците храни,
падне ли снегът.
*
Толкова малко дръвче
врабците на сянка събира.
Благословена песен.
*
Детето вика: Бабо, бабо…
На съседката, която
няма внуче.
*
Зъзне пред вратата
на любимата
кученце.
*
Мирише на пролет.
Привечер се обажда
сова.
97
VANYA DUSHEVA (BULGARIA)
*
The kindest tree – the cypress
feeds the sparrows
when it snows.
*
Such a small tree
gathers the sparrows in its shadows.
A blessed song.
*
The child calls out: “Granny”…
To the neighbour who’s got
no grandchild.
*
Shivering outside
the beloved’s door –
a doggie.
*
It smells of spring.
At dusk an owl
calls out.
98
*
Разравяш жарта.
Безброй светулки.
Лятна жътва.
*
Милувка.
През краката преминава
змия.
*
Пролет е.
Сиамската котка
търси помощ.
*
Лятна вечер.
По лунната пътека
плува гларус.
*
Вечерня.
Пред олтара – богомолка.
Монаха го няма.
99
*
You stir up the embers.
Myriads of fireflies.
Summer harvest.
*
Caress.
A snake passes over
the feet.
*
Springtime.
A Siamese cat
is looking for help.
*
Summer evening.
On the moonlight path
a gull is swimming.
*
Evensong.
At the altar a mantis.
The monk is not there.
100
KRASIMIR SIMEONOV (BULGARIA)
Различни
пътят и вървящия по него
думите и словото
жертвата и хищникът
господа и бога
но ще дойде Утешителят
на всичките неща
Обяснение в любов
На теб,
която изрови
мидичката на
сърцето ми
и си я сложи
в аквариума.
Косата ти е
лунната снопина
из вълните.
Очите ти
са тези птици,
за които вечно ще остана
зимата.
По устните
е спомена от другите пространства.
Вече дишам.
101
KRASIMIR SIMEONOV (BULGARIA)
Differences
the way and the one walking it
the words and the word
the victim and the beast of prey
the lord and the god
but the Consoler will come
for all things
Declaration of love
To you,
who dug out
the mussel of
my heart
and put it
into your aquarium
Your hair is
a shaft of moonlight
on the waves.
Your eyes
are the birds
For whom I will forever be
winter.
On the lips
is the memory of other spaces.
I’m already breathing.
102
В особения цвят на свойто време
бедуинът би казал:
пустинята си отиде от очите ми,
морето си отиде от очите ми,
безпределностите свършват. без теб.
такова е това заглавие.
От смирените ти рамена
извира силата ми
като мъгла
от восъчно море.
Кладенеца съм, във който
си паднала.
И не плачеш,
и не търсиш помощ.
Началото на огъня
“Началото на огъня
е сред житата” – и се скри отново мишката.
“Началото на огъня
е в дървесата сухи” – каза птицата и отлетя от клона.
“Началото на огъня
е в подреденото огнище” – обади се змията и изпълзя навън.
“Началото на огъня
е във праха от всеки въглен” - прокара мравката мравуняка си.
“А началото на огъня
е в огнените му причини;
в това нещата да са огнени
и огънят да бъде във нещата,
а нещата – в собствените си утайки
из мойто дъно,
мойто дъно” – така покри водата своите изконни площи.
103
In the peculiar color of his time
the Bedouin would say:
the desert has left my eyes,
the sea has left my eyes,
infinities are at an end. without you.
that’s what this heading is.
It is from your submissive shoulders
that my power springs,
like the mist over
the waxen sea.
I am the well in which
you have fallen.
And you are not crying.
And you are not seeking help.
The beginning of fire
“The beginning of Fire
is in the cornfields” – and the mouse hid again.
“The beginning of Fire
is in the dry trees” – said the bird
as it flew away.
“The beginning of Fire
is in the well-arranged fireplace” – the snake called
as it crawled out.
“The beginning of Fire
is in the dust from every coal” – the ant led away
Its ant swarm.
“Whereas the beginning of Fire
is in its fire causes;
in things being fire-like
and in Fire being in things,
while things are in their own sediments
spread on my bottom,
my bottom” – thus the water covered
Its primordial areas.
104
MARIA ŞLEAHTIŢCHI (REPUBLICA MOLDOVA)
poem feminin
varianta a
sînt cea care poarta
înlăuntru
cuibul şi oul lumii
sînt deplină
se dedică margaretei elenei
mie
şi altor femei
variantă reflexivă
sînt un imens gol
cu centrul întrun cuib părăsit
nu sînt deplină
nu sînt nu sînt nu sînt
ultima variantă
sînt cea care port
tot ce îmi dai
doamne
îţi aparţin
pastorală (II)
„nici tristeţea
nu pare a reflecta nimic
din această agonie”
în grădina ta de la tîrnova
întinsă pe un păretar
vechi şi decolorat
105
MARIA ŞLEAHTIŢCHI (REPUBLIC OF MOLDAVIA)
Feminine Poem
variant a
I am she who bears
deep inside
the nest with the egg of the world
it dedicates itself
to margareta to elena
to me
and to other women
reflexive variant
I am an immense emptiness
its center in
an abandoned nest
I am not perfect
I am not am not am not
final variant
I am she who bears
everything you give me
god
I belong to you
Pastoral (II)
“not even sorrow
seems to reflect the least part
of this agony”
in your garden at tîrnova
stretched out on an embroidered runner
an faded heirloom from my grandmother
106
zestre de la bunica
fac lecturi din cioran
în dialog mutual
cu o capră albă
cu ochi albi şi rotunzi
ca verigheta de pe inelarul
tău stîng
cu gene lungi şi ascuţite
cu un fuior subţire de barbă
de pe pajişti arhaice
capra paşte movul amărui
al florilor de brusturi
verdele uscat al păretarului
degrabă
mă va paşte pe mine
cu carte cu tot
***
citind pe eliade
se deşteaptă în mine
zvîcnirea luminoasă
a tinerei zeiţe
din a.5700
curtată de porumbel
107
I read cioran
in convivial dialogue
with a white nanny-goat
her blue eyes round
as the wedding band on your
left ring finger
elegant curved lashes
a straggly beard
on the archaic meadow
she grazes the bitter lavender
of burdock flowers
the dry green of this small embroidered carpet
soon
she must graze me too
along with this book
(Translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Cristina Cîrstea)
***
reading eliade
the bright twitch
of the young goddess
from y. 5700
courted by the dove
is awakening in me.
(Translated by Mihaela Şleahtiţchi)
108
PAUL ARETZU (ROMANIA)
***
să vă spun cum învăţ eu pretutindeni, mereu. cum scot cărţile, cum
întind hârtia la scris. cum prepar cernelurile şi încerc peniţele. cu trupul
ca izvorul, cu gândul ca inima fecioarei. vorbind singur printre animale.
pe câmpul geros şi-nvelit în Dumnezeu. cum îngenunchi eu la sfânta
masă de scris, printre ucenici. luaţi, mâncaţi dintru această carte până nu
se transformă în praf. beţi dintru această cerneală care se varsă în zadar.
până nu mor. până nu mă uitaţi de tot. astfel pregătesc cina învierii
pentru fârtaţi.
PSALMUL 59
Plecasem pe un drum spre cel mai vechi oraş din lume, însoţit de
tovarăşi. Unul avea hărţi pe piei de viţel, altul ducea în raniţă hârtie de
China, hârtie de mătase, hârtie imperială de Japonia, hârtie de şamoa,
hârtie de Olanda, hârtie de ofset, hârtie satinată, hârtie Whatman, altul
avea buzunarele doldora cu stilouri, cu peniţe, cu pene de scris ascuţite
şi despicate la vârf, altul ducea călimări şi corni de cingătoare plini cu
cerneluri preparate din funingine sau din cinabru, din gogoşi de ristic,
din săruri de fier şi din miniu de plumb, altul transporta probare de
cerneală, probare de litere cu modele, semne şi ornamente şi probare de
titluri, altul avea nisiparniţe, alţii mergeau pentru credinţă făcând parte
din ceată. Omuleni făcuţi din carne şi din sânge, din pâine şi din vin,
eram poeţi de psalmi, căutători de divin.
109
PAUL ARETZU (ROMANIA)
***
let me tell you how I learn everywhere, all the time. how I take out the
book, how I spread off my paper while writing. how I prepare my ink
and try my pens. with my body like a spring, with my thought like the
virgin’s heart. speaking to myself among the animals. on the frosty field
wrapped in God. how I kneel in front of my holy writing table, among
my disciples. take, eat from within this book until it doesn’t turn to dust.
drink from within this ink spilled out in vain. until I don’t die. until you
won’t fully forget me. thus, I prepare the resurrection dinner for my
bosom friends.
(Translated by Carmen Racoviţă)
PSALM 59
I had set out with my comrades on a road to the word’s most ancient
city. One of us had maps drawn on calf skin, another carried China
paper, silk paper, Japanese imperial paper, chamois paper, Dutch paper,
offset paper, satin paper, Whatman paper in his backpack, another had
his pockets stuffed with fountain pens and quills with their pointed and
slit tips, still another brought along inkpots and inkhorns filled with ink
made of antimony vermilion, of oak apple, of iron salts and red lead,
another one carried samples of ink and of letters, signs and ornaments
and fonts for titles, one man held the sand baths, others came along for
the belief being part of the team as well. Little men made of flesh and
blood, of bread and wine, we were the psalmist poets, the ones in search
for the sacred.
(Translated by Ioana Ieronim
and Arhiepiscop Chrysostomos of Etna)
110
Psalmul 75
Bisericile sunt seminţe ale Duhului, căzute din cer.
Eu mănânc pâine răstignită. Sufletul meu este tot mai înăuntru.
Ca apa în fântână. Şi Dumnezeu se oglindeşte în mine.
Psalmul este cuvântul întrupat. Veniţi să ne împărtăşim cu psalm. Veniţi
să atingem îngeri. Doamne, trimite-mi un înger moscat.
Împodobit m-ai făcut şi m-ai înfiat. Trupul meu este epic iar sufletul
este liric. Am o religie în sânge.
Sunt înconjurat de strămoşi şi de urmaşi.
Doamne, cum a fost când m-am născut? Dumnezeu m-a plămădit,
Dumnezeu mi-a suflat Duh în nări.
Dumnezeu a pus în mine puncte cardinale.
Mănânc în genunchi, Doamne. îngerii sunt nişte secunde.
Au feţele jupuite iar sânii lor miros a busuioc.
Îngerii se îngrămădesc pe fiinţele omeneşti.
Scriam pentru a învăţa să scriu. Vorbeam pentru a învăţa
să vorbesc. În fiecare zi mă botezam cu rugăciune.
Dormeam pentru a învăţa să mor.
Sunt un om pierdut şi nemaigăsit de nimeni. Cu ochi gânditori.
Doamne, vreau să-mi retrag toate cuvintele şi să încerc iar…
***
chiar pe aici, mireasa trecu lăsând unde neliniştite de voaluri. ciupind
pleoapa noastră la vreme de iarnă. chiar printre aceste fire de iarbă, roza
ei făptură, încoronată, dintre spumele mării ieşi. vestind prima zăpadă,
vântul răbufnind printre pociumbi. degrabă intra-vom cu tălpi sfiite în
dulcea ei căsuţă de ceară. degrabă, ca nişte văcari veniţi din zloata
câmpului, ne vom desfăta pe lângă foc. oprită în cer limba timpului. ne
numără.
111
Psalm 75
Churches are the Spirit’s seed, that fell from heaven.
I eat crucified bread. My soul is ever more interior.
Like water in a well. The Lord, too, is mirrored in me.
The Psalm is the word embodied. Come let us commune with a psalm.
Come, let us touch angels. Sendest Thou me a musky angel, O Lord.
Thou hast embellished me and Thou hast adopted me. My body is epic
and my soul is lyric. I have a religion in my blood.
I am surrounded by ancestors and offspring.
O Lord, what was it like when I was born? God formed me,
He blew Spirit into my nostrils.
God put cardinal points in me.
I eat on my knees, O Lord. The angels are seconds.
Their faces are flayed and their breasts have the scent of basil.
Angels crowd on human beings.
I wrote so as to learn to write. I spoke so as to learn to speak. Every day
I was baptized in prayer.
I slept so as to learn to die.
I am a lost man who has not been found. With pensive eyes.
I wish to retract all of my words, O Lord, and to try again…
***
it is even here, that the bride passed leaving behind the restless waves of
her veils. touching our eyelids in winter season. it is among these very
blades of grass that her crowned rosy figure emerged, from the sea
foam. heralding the first snow, the wind blowing across fields of corn.
we shall hurry her sweet wax house with our shy soles. like cowherds
coming from muddy fields will we hurry to sit happily before the fire.
the hand of time has stopped in the sky. it counts us.
(Translated by Ioana Ieronim
and Arhiepiscop Chrysostomos of Etna)
112
IONUŢ CARAGEA (ROMANIA, CANADA)
Disconnect
şi dacă pică serverul mai sunt poet?
şi dacă pică brusc internetul în toată lumea
cine va mai auzi de mine?
mi-ar plăcea să se dea o lege
prin care să se interzică poezia în locurile publice
să te duci în locurile special amenajate
cu un creion şi o foaie de hârtie
să scrii numai pentru tine
ca şi când poezia ta
ar fi un inel de logodnă
sau o promisiune de iubire
mi-am rănit sufletul pe hârtie
într-o baltă de cuvinte
tu îi spui clişeu
deşeu
sau pur şi simplu
vorbărie
în timp ce poezia
este o trecere de pietoni
între viaţă şi moarte
sau un mistreţ fugărit de alice
într-o pădure virgină
ceea ce scriu nu-i o simplă îndeletnicire
ci o dedicaţie pentru Dumnezeu
care uneori îţi pune palma
pe frunte
femeie
chiar dacă viaţa înseamnă un spital
în care oamenii te tratează
cu pastile de sictir
în timp ce moartea inventariază
suflete
113
IONUŢ CARAGEA (ROMANIA, CANADA)
Disconnect
and if the server crashed
would I still be a poet?
and if the Internet crashed suddenly
in the whole wide world
who’s going to ever hear of me?
I would like a law
to forbid poetry in public
to have to go in specially designed places
with a pencil and a piece of paper
to write only for myself
as if my poem were
an engagement ring
a vow for love
I’ve been hurting my soul
on a piece of paper
in a puddle of words
you call it clichee
a hole
or a whole lot of nothing
while poetry is
a crosswalk
between life and death
or a wild boar chased by bullets
in a pristine forest
My writing is not
a simple pastime
but a dedication for God
Who sometimes puts his palm
on your forehead
Woman
even if Life is a hospital
where people treat you
with drops of Indifference
while Death counts souls
114
dacă ar pica internetul
aş merge cu picioarele goale prin ţărână
să simt trupul rece al înaintaşilor mei
sau m-aş tunde zero
să nu-şi dea nimeni seama
cât de frumos ninge
aş renunţa la această vorbărie
şi ţi-aş trage un şut acolo
unde
te doare cel mai tare
să-ţi arăt
cât de mult te iubesc
m-am născut pe Google
toată lumea ştie
şi tot caut, tot caut locul
în care
să mă spovedesc
Limba poetului şi ceasul poliglot
ceasul ştia trei limbi
de circulaţie universală
le vorbea pe toate trei deodată
fără să le-ncurce
poetul ştia doar o limbă
pe care ceasul n-o înţelegea
limba care apăruse
înainte ca ceasul să fie ceas
înainte ca orele să fie ore
înainte ca minutele să fie minute
înainte ca secundele să fie secunde
într-o zi ceasul a stat
hotărât să înveţe
dar limba poetului o luase cu mult înainte
dincolo de ore, dincolo de minute
dincolo de secunde
dincolo de orice aşteptare
degeaba ai stat ceasule
degeaba ai stat
115
if the Internet crashed
I would walk barefeet in the dust
to feel the cold body of my ancestors
or I would shave my head
so that nobody notices
how beautifully it snows
I would stop this talking
(a whole lot of nothing)
and I would kick you
where it hurts the most
to prove you
how much I love you
I was born on Google
everybody knows
and I endlessly seek
a place
to confess
Poet Talk and the Polyglot Clock
The Clock spoke three languages
Universally used
It spoke all three together
Without mistake
The Poet spoke but one
One the Clock could not understand
One that was born
Before the clock became a clock
Before the hours became hours
Before the minutes became minutes
Before the seconds became seconds
One day the Clock stopped
Determined to learn
But the Poet’s language was long gone ahead
Beyond hours, beyond minutes
Beyond seconds
Beyond any expectations
You stopped for nothing Clock
For nothing
Translation Ioana Tirtirău
116
Haiku
LJUDMILA HRISTOVA (BULGARIA)
тиха утрин
паяжината –
натежала от роса
quiet morning
the spider-web is so heavy
with dew-drops
излезе вятър
паяче се спусна
от небето
wind blew up
a little spider climbed down
the sky
слънце…сянка…слънце
още са млади
крайпътните дървета
sunshine…shadow…sunshine
the roadside trees
are still young
отмина бурята –
толкова
щастливи охлюви
storm is over
fragrant drops drain away
from the linden-trees
летя за Канада –
изпращат ме кленове,
посрещат ме кленове
flight to Canada –
maples see me off,
maples met me
не се отваря чадърът ми
дъждът отнася
цветовете на жасмина
my umbrella won’t open –
rain is carrying away
jasmine blossoms
117
BORIS NAZANSKY (CROATIA)
cvjetaju trešnje
dječak kuštra sijedu
djedovu kosu
cherries blossom
a little boy tousles
grandfather’s grey hair
ljetna kišica
sjena moga oraha
još posve suha
soft summer rain
shadow of my walnut tree
still dry
kaplje ljetna noć
mjesečina se vrti
u mlinskom kolu
dripping summer night
moonlight rotates
in the mill’s wheel
dok šaren šešir
prolazi – pogled stoji
na gležnjevima
while colourful hat
is passing by – a look is fixed
on the ankles
u ljetnoj noći
oka ribarskih mreža
puna zvijezda
in the summer night
the meshes of fishing nets
are full of the stars
cijelo nebo
i cijela noæ pod njim
u jezercetu
the entire sky
and a whole night under it
in a little lake
118
ĐURĐA VUKELIĆ-ROŽIĆ (CROATIA)
hladno jutro
lokva na stazi
razbita u komadiće
cold morning
puddle on the path
crushed to pieces
iza ponoći
probudila me ulična lampa
ugasivši se
after midnight
street lamp turned off
waking me up
kasno proljeće
gladim sunce na krznu
pospane mačke
late spring – I'm fondling
the sun on the black fur
of a sleepy cat
lutke i medo
na pločniku čekaju
odvoz smeća
dolls and teddy bears
on the sidewalk awaiting
the garbage truck
gradska uličica
sjena žene na zidu
jedini grafit
city back street
a woman’s shadow
the only graffiti
šumska čistina
lahor naglo promijenio
obris neba
forest clearing
summer breeze suddenly changed
contour of the sky
119
STJEPAN ROŽIĆ (CROATIA)
iznenadni vjetar
nosi snježni oblak
s trešnje u cvatu
suddenly a wind
carrying snowy cloud from
the blossoming cherry-tree
na rubu mlake
vrabac ljubeći svoj odraz
pije vodu
on a puddle's edge
sparrow kisses his reflection
drinking water
kroz grane bora
sa zalazećeg sunca
vise češeri
through pine boughs
from the setting Sun
the pine cones hang down
pod ljetnim suncem
svaki listak šume ljulja
svoju sjenku
under summer sun
each leaf in the forest cradling
its own shadow
odjednom leptir
prevuče žutu traku
preko livade
suddenly a butterfly
drawing a yellow ribbon
over the meadow
nestala rosa
sparni ljetni dan
teško diše livada
a vanishing dew
sultry summer day
heavy breathing meadow
120
ALEXANDRA FLORA MUNTEANU (ROMANIA)
Munte în ceaţă
Vârfuri de brazi înoată
în necuprins
Mountain in fog –
fir-trees tops swim
in immensity
Turişti în goană
Pârtia de schi liberă
Începătorilor
Tourists in a hurry the sky track is free
for beginners
Tren de călători
salutul reverenţios
şuieratul
travelers train –
ceremonious greeting
whistling
Tunelul lung
răcoarea amintirii
drumurilor
the long tunnel –
cool of the old travels
souvenir
umbre şi stoluri
la apusul soarelui
se zgribulesc
shadows and flights
at sunset
shrink
121
EDUARD ŢARĂ (ROMANIA)
În urma broaştei –
un plescăit în noapte
şi luna ţăndări
After the frog’s leap –
only a splash in the dark
and the moon to shards
Drumul sub ape –
Calea Lactee trece
prin cimitir
Road under water –
the Milky Way still crossing
the cemetery
Lecţie despre război –
în ochi albaştri de copil
planeta senină
Lesson about wars –
in the blue eyes of the child
a serene planet
Poştaş la uşă –
pe un plic de departe
primul fulg de nea
Postman at the door –
on a letter from abroad
the first snowflake
Stea căzătoare –
o clipă de tăcere
între doi greieri
Shooting star from dark –
a moment of deep silence
between the crickets
Primul mugure –
îmi amintesc durerea
măselei de minte
The first cherry bud –
I still remember the pain
of my wisdom tooth
122
INTERVIEW
FROM THE ANDES TO THE BALKANS: THE ITINERARY OF
A PASSIONATE LINGUIST
Professor Aurelia Roman’s
Interview with Professor Hector
Aurelia Roman: Hector Campos is
Associate Professor of Spanish and
Portuguese
at
Georgetown
University, USA, but he is a
professor who wears many hats. He teaches Greek, Spanish, Linguistics,
and, as he will tell us, more subjects than these. Some people collect
stamps, rare books or artifacts. He collects languages – sixteen of them
so far; - four or five of which are from the Balkan region.
A.R: Hector, your collection is an inner one. Your knowledge of
languages is inside your memory and it is a living part of you.
So who are you? What was your first language? Where were
you born? What background did you have to direct you to this
unusual collection?
Hector Campos: Hmm, let’s see …my mother tongue is Spanish. So
that was my first language, but my mother is an English teacher, so at
home …
A.R.: Where was home?
H. C: In Santiago, Chile. I was born in Santiago. Both of my parents are
teachers. In Chile they had this requirement – I don’t know if it still
exists – that if you do your studies in the capital, in order for you to
123
come back and teach in the capital you first have to serve in the
provinces for five or six years. In this way the provinces benefit from
the new blood. So my parents moved to the mountains in Los Andes,
close to the border with Argentina. And they loved it so much that we
stayed there for fifteen or sixteen years. Because my mother was an
English teacher, we had English books and I always asked her: “Can
you teach me English?” She didn’t want to, because she was teaching it
all day long. So I pretty much taught myself. For high school, my
parents had to persuade me to move back to Santiago with my
grandparents so that I would get a better high school education and the
opportunity to go to university. They blackmailed me because they
knew that I loved languages and they said that if I moved to Santiago,
they would let me study English at the American Institute, French at the
French Institute, and Italian at the Italian Institute. So, I said, “I’m
going”.
A. R: How old were you?
H. C: I was probably twelve or thirteen. So, I moved to Santiago and
then I began studying all those languages at those institutes.
A. R: All three of them at once?
H. C: Yes. At that time we had two required languages in high school:
everyone had to study English and French. But, Italian, I just loved it
because it sounded so beautiful, and because I loved opera I wanted to
be able to understand. I had a very nice tape collection of courses for
learning German, English, French, Italian. I spent most of my allowance
buying language courses! This is how my involvement with languages
began. However, I began my university studies in Chile as a chemist. I
think Chemistry was probably a combination of the interests of both my
parents, because my mother was an English teacher and my father was a
science teacher. I was going to be a chemist. I was in the Faculty of
Sciences at the University of Chile for a couple of years, but then the
oppressive Pinochet regime started and I decided to leave the country. I
went into exile.
A. R: Where did you go?
124
H. C: Well, first I moved to Spain because of a connection with my
grandfather. He got me and some young friends out of Chile, with the
help of the Church. I stayed in Spain for a couple of years, and then I
got a scholarship to come to the US.
A. R: Did you finish your university program in Spain?
H. C: No. In Spain we were basically exiles and we just survived by
singing. That was very hard too, because Franco was still in power in
Spain at the time. But we used to joke and say “It’s their dictator, not
ours!” And we just sang against oppression.
A. R: How did you come to the United States?
H. C: There was a program, but I don’t know if it still exists. It was
called the Institute of International Education or something like that. I
was walking downtown one day and saw a sign: “Scholarships to study
in the U.S.” I went to the Institute and was told, “You have to pass some
exams.” So, I took about three or four exams and was offered a
scholarship to go to Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire—
a very good school. When news of the scholarship arrived, the lady in
charge at the Institute called me: “Look, you just got a scholarship from
Dartmouth. I have never seen a scholarship like this. I mean they will
pay for everything! Accept it!” And I said, “But where is that?” She
said, “I don’t know, but I’ve never seen a scholarship like this. Take it,
take it !” So I did accept it!
A. R: I am sure the results of your examinations were
outstanding, since Dartmouth College – one of the Ivy League
schools – is highly selective. Indeed, it is very hard to be
admitted there. This is a huge leap from street-singer in Spain
to Dartmouth student on a full scholarship!
H. C: I went there and I began again with chemistry because that’s what
I had done in Chile. The change was too big and I found out that my
heart was not in chemistry after all. I remembered the sheer joy of
studying languages. So I changed my field to literature. That was a big
jump--and a drastic jump. Literature is a very different discipline from
Chemistry. Coming from the sciences, I expected things to be either
125
right or wrong. Now, it seemed that anything was fine as long as the
teacher liked your idea and you made your point. I didn’t like that, even
though I must admit that I had excellent teachers! The other problem
was convincing my parents! They wanted me to have one of the
traditional professions (lawyer, doctor or engineer). It had taken me a
long time to convince them that I wanted to be a chemist. Imagine now
that I wanted to do literature!
A. R: Well, now I understand your passion for linguistics as a
science.
H. C: Well, I knew nothing about linguistics then. What happened was
that in literature I was going crazy because my grade really depended on
what the professor liked or didn’t like. And the problem (and a blessing,
at the same time!) was that Dartmouth, being a very good school, was
very strict about what they call “liberal arts education”. Every student
has to explore and do many fields. But I was having a problem
satisfying the “social sciences” requirement, with the result that I
couldn’t graduate until I had completed two or three courses in the
social sciences. Fortunately, Dartmouth had this motto at that time: “If
we don’t have what you want, we will send you anywhere to get what
you want”. So I began to look around, exploring what other fields might
count as social sciences. I discovered that Linguistics was sort of inbetween. In some places, it counted as a social science, in other places,
it counted as a humanities subject and at some places like MIT, it even
counted as a science! Seeing that linguistics was described as the
“science of language”, I had a “Eureka” moment.
A.R: Here at Georgetown it also counts as a science. I have an
M.S. in Linguistics from Georgetown.
H. C: That’s right. So, I said: “This is it!” I wanted to do linguistics
although I really had no idea what it was! I knew it was connected to
languages and I loved languages. So Dartmouth sent me to UCSD, in
San Diego, for one semester. I took four linguistics courses that
semester and a miracle happened: I fell in love with linguistics! “Oh my
God, this is what I’ve always wanted! It’s the science of language.”
When I went back to Dartmouth, the problem was that no one could
direct me because they had no linguists. I found two French professors,
126
who helped me a lot. They were both very knowledgeable and, even
though they were literature experts, they directed my linguistics
projects. I even took Romanian from one of them. My B.A. thesis was
on twentieth-century century French and Latin American poetry. I got
my degree in Romance literatures. I intended to go teach in Japan after
graduation, since they were looking for Spanish teachers in Japan at that
time. But because I started at Dartmouth as a Science major, I had to
study German in order to satisfy the language requirement for science.
German was the language for the sciences. So I had signed up for a
program in Germany and I was sent to Berlin to study for a semester.
This was when the Berlin Wall was still standing.
A. R: So you went to West Berlin?
H. C: Yes. But because I was in Germany, I missed my interview with
the Japanese people who came to the US to interview candidates. It was
the beginning of April, I was about to graduate and I didn’t know what I
was going to do. Fortunately, the director of the department (she had
been a student at UCLA) said, “I know a linguist at UCLA. Let me call
him.” So she called him; his name was Carlos Otero. He got me a
scholarship and I went to study under him. He practically adopted me as
his son. So that’s how I got to UCLA, where the Linguistics Department
was Number 2 in the nation at that time. The best one was MIT. And it
had the best Romance Linguistics program in the country, if not in the
world, at that time, but things have changed.
A. R: You were very lucky. How many years did you study
there?
H. C: Six years. I completed my Masters and PhD there.
A. R: What was your thesis about?
H. C: Because I was in the Romance Linguistics program, they
recommended that I work on the less studied Romance languages. That
is why I started with Romanian. But they didn’t have many courses and
the teacher was actually afraid of me because I was asking too many
questions. So I did my dissertation mainly on Gascon and Occitan. I
127
spent a couple of summers working in southern France, near Toulouse,
learning those languages. I bought the Assimil series for Occitan and I
taught myself the language. Then I did the same for Gascon with a
different method. Then I contacted the Institut d’Etudes Occitanes and
they were kind enough to send me to a farm where I did my research.
That’s how I got the data for my dissertation. And I did my dissertation
on Occitan and Provencal, among many other languages and dialects. If
I remember correctly, I think I ended up comparing about 16 different
Romance languages/dialects. I was looking at the different ways in
which verbal inflection was marked in all these languages.
A. R: How did you come to Georgetown?
H. C: That’s another crazy story. I was doing my dissertation in France.
One day I was walking around in Toulouse, on one of my free weekends
from the farm, when I saw a sign that said, “Cheap flights and tours to
Greece”. And I said, “Oh, my God, that’s the dream of my life!” So I
took a flight to Athens. To cut a long story short, when I was in Crete,
after many adventures (like not finding my tour!), I met an old man who
offered to let me stay for free in his house (which ended up being a bed
and breakfast place). I was a bit uncomfortable at first, but after seeing
that he had no bad intentions, I accepted. He had only one condition for
me: that I let him teach me some Greek while we had breakfast!
A. R: What language did you speak with him?
H. C: Well, I didn’t know any Greek. He was speaking half English,
half French, but very, very broken French and English. So I said: “I’m a
student, I’m visiting”. He said, “Oh, where are you staying?” I said,
“You see that cave on the beach? The second one, that’s my cave. I am
camping there”. “No, you can’t do that. That’s dangerous. You’ll get
mugged at night. Don’t do that. Come with me!” That’s the Greek
concept of “filokseniia”.
A. R: Wow! So you stayed for free in exchange for learning
Greek? That’s unheard of!
128
H. C: Yes, I know. But that’s Greece. That’s why I was so much in love
with Greece too. I stayed with him and I was going to leave after a
week.
A. R: How did he teach Greek to you?
H. C: He started showing me things and we started having little
conversations. He taught me some poems, some songs... I was going to
leave after a week. And he started crying, so I stayed for two more
weeks. I learned very basic things and some songs and poems. When I
left, he gave me a present. It was Kazantzakis’s autobiography (Lettre
au Greco), in French. I still have it. It was the most wonderful book I’d
ever read. It was so beautiful that I didn’t want it to end. I’d read a little
bit at a time, so that it wouldn’t come to an end. But then the most
beautiful thing…
A. R: How interesting. I like what you just said. It’s like music;
you don’t want the music you like to end.
H. C: And the most beautiful thing for me was that Kazantzakis himself
was an exile. And the places I was visiting were exactly the places I was
reading about. At one point he was talking about some blue mountains.
If you have never been to Greece, you would think it is crazy! But sure
enough, mountains become blue at night and it is hard to tell them apart
from the sea and the sky!
A.R: I’ll have to read it.
H. C: I can lend it to you although it has my notes …So my host said to
me: “Here is my present so that you will understand me better.” And I
made a promise to him right there at the harbor, in Crete, as we were
both crying: “I will come and visit you and I will talk to you in Greek
next time. And I will also be able to read this book in Greek some
day.”…I came back to the US and finished my dissertation. I taught at
Pomona College while I wrote my dissertation. There I met a colleague,
a friend, and she was the one who actually sent my application to
Georgetown. I didn’t want to send it because I had seen the position
vacant for 2-3 years in a row. I thought “Mmm… either they’re not
129
hiring anyone, or they’re too difficult to handle and then everybody
leaves!” Without telling me, she actually sent my papers to Georgetown.
Then one day, I get a call from my adviser, Professor Otero, and he asks
me: “Did you apply to Georgetown? You didn’t tell me that you had
applied to Georgetown!” I said, “No, I did not apply.” So he says, “But
they are asking me how much money you want to go there.”
A.R: He recommended you?
H.C: Yes, he was in fact my friend and mentor! They contacted him.
The Chair of the Spanish Department at Georgetown at that time was
also a graduate of UCLA. So he immediately called Otero and, of
course, Otero said good things about me. When I went for the interview,
at the MLA Conference (this was in December 1985) I was very
nervous. The MLA was held in Chicago. I went there and I had left my
interview with Georgetown for last because I thought I needed practice
interviewing, since I had never looked for a job before. I had about
thirteen other interviews but I left Georgetown until last. To cut a long
story short, by the end of December I already had the invitation to come
to campus. Right after my lecture on campus, Professor Gerli told me:
“Here’s the contract, but there’s a little problem. You have to meet the
Dean--Dean Alatis. And the problem is that the school doesn’t like to
hire foreigners because there is a lot of paperwork to do. So if he says
no, there’s nothing we can do.” So I went to meet him!
A.R: Did you know that Dean Alatis was teaching Greek?
H.C: No, I didn’t know! So Gerli takes me to the office of the Dean of
the School of Languages and Linguistics, and Dean James Alatis opens
the door. It was a 4 o’clock interview. It was in January, so it was
winter. I was blinded by the sun shining into my face and all I could see
was the shape of this man. He was just a solid shadow with a golden
watch who was talking to me. I couldn’t see his expression and I was so
nervous. “First question: what kind of linguist are you?” So I said,
“Well, I’m a theoretical linguist.” “WRONG ANSWER!” he says. He
sounded like the oracle of Delphi! He continued:“Because in my school,
we don’t make those distinctions. We are all linguists, this is just one
school, we have one purpose, I hate those distinctions.” I thought to
myself, “Okay, I blew it.” I felt that was it for Georgetown! But then at
130
the end of the interview he says, “Well, I see you have studied with
Chomsky. I know he does universal grammar, but he doesn’t know
languages. How many languages do YOU know?” So I said, “Well,
I’ve done work on the Romance languages, these are my languages …
bla, bla, bla…and I know a little Greek.” I didn’t know he was Greek.
“Greek?” he says, raising his thick Greek eyebrows, “What do you
know about Greek?” So I remembered one of the poems that this man in
Crete had taught me. I recited the little poem to him, and he started
crying. So this was the monster that everybody was afraid of! It just
happened that he knew the poem! He must have learned it when he was
a kid and it brought back memories!
A.R: I love Dean Alatis. He hired me, too. Ten years before
you. In ’76.
H.C: When Michael Gerli, the Chair of Spanish, came to get me, this
monster of a dean is giving me a hug, calling me “son,” and then saying,
in front of my future Chair, “My son, if you come to Georgetown, I will
do anything in my reach so that you can have a career with us.” My
Chair almost fainted. He asked, “What did you do?” “Nothing, I just
told him a little poem that someone taught me in Greece.” So that was
the connection. Then, when I came to Georgetown, in my first year, I
audited his Greek course, Intensive Greek I, for the whole year at 10
a.m. every morning, Monday through Friday.
A. R: With the Dean?
H. C: Yes, with him! Even though he was the Dean, he taught Greek
and Linguistics. So I studied with him one hour a day. All my
classmates were Greek American and they were very good students. So
I had to study very hard to keep up with them! Besides, Dean Alatis
would always call on me when the official students didn’t know the
answer! So I learned a lot! And then the next summer, I went back to
Crete to visit the old man and I could talk to him in Greek! I kept my
promise. As I was studying Greek with Dean Alatis, I started
discovering a lot of interesting things about modern Greek, problems
that hadn’t been studied in my framework of generative grammar. So I
began publishing on Greek and of course Dean Alatis was very proud of
that. I did more research, started studying Classical and Biblical Greek
131
on Saturday morning through Georgetown’s Extension Program, and
continued with Greek II and III here at Georgetown. For my sabbatical,
the University of Thessaloniki invited me to go and to teach a course
there on syntactic theory.
A. R: Of course, you taught in English?
H. C: Greek and English because some students couldn’t speak English.
They would ask in Greek, I would answer in Greek or English, we
would discuss in both languages.
A. R: How long did you stay there?
H. C: A semester, I spent my entire sabbatical there. There I met Dr.
Melita Stavrou who was going to come to Georgetown as a Visiting
Professor in the spring of 2010. She is a world expert on the structure of
the noun phrase, and we started doing work together. At the same time,
when I was there, the professor who taught Romance Linguistics was an
adorable man with a big, long moustache, white hair, a typical Greek.
And he was a Vlach speaker. His name is Nikos Katsanis. He is retired
now, but we still keep in touch.
A. R: And there you were with a new Romance language in
your bag!
H. C: Right! So he said, “I am native speaker of Vlach. If you need
anything, just talk to me.” So I started getting data from him. He had
published a book on Vlach grammar and he introduced some of his
Vlach students to me and shared the research that they were doing under
him. When I was in Thessaloniki, I also attended a course given by
another colleague there, Xristos Tzitzilis. He’s an expert on Balkan
linguistics. He speaks all the Balkan languages! He’s the one who got
me started on Balkan linguistics!
A. R: Can you say his name again, please?
H. C: Tzitzilis. T-z-i-t-z-i-l-i-s. He’s very well known in the Balkan
community. He’s a philologist, not a linguist. I took his course and then
132
I could see how all those Balkan languages are connected. So I
understood more about Romanian, and I said, “Great, I can start doing
research on this, especially with Vlach.” So that’s how I started doing
research on Vlach.
A. R: Did you meet other speakers of Vlach there?
H. C: Yes., Dr. Stavrou, Katsanis and others were always inviting me to
go visit their villages! There are a lot of Vlach speakers in the villages
around the Pindus Mountains.
A. R: You teach Greek at Georgetown. How did you start
teaching Greek?
H. C: After my first sabbatical in Greece, I kept going back to Greece,
taking more Greek courses in the summer. So I did many programs at
the University of Thessaloniki and on the islands during the summer.
Then, as Dean Alatis was getting older and having more trouble moving
around (he had to have a hip replacement), I noticed that he was coming
to school every day. He was no longer Dean then, as our School of
Languages and Linguistics had been made part of the College here at
Georgetown. I talked to him and said: “Look, professors normally don’t
come five days a week, like you do. We come two days a week, three at
most. Why don’t you stay home on Fridays? I will teach your Friday
class.” I guess he was weak, because his health was getting weaker. But
he stayed home on Fridays for just one semester. After that, he would
come to my classes on Friday and participate just like any other student.
A. R: You did team-teaching?
H. C: Yes. We started team-teaching Greek I, and then I became part of
the Modern Greek Department. Because the books that we used were
kind of old and I was traveling to Greece pretty much every summer, I
started bringing back all the new materials. I was also in contact with
many teachers and with the schools there. So, what we teach now is
very modern and up to date. I think we are even more advanced than
many of the programs in Greece itself!
133
A.R: Congratulations! Now remind me, please, how we met and
what you were doing. I remember that I knew nothing about
you. I was waiting in line at the copy machine, and you had an
old book. And you were copying every page. I was kind of
impatient. It was taking forever. I started reading the pages,
and began laughing. You asked me: “Do you know Greek?” I
said: “I do not, but this is not Greek. This is Romanian.” And
you started laughing and said: “Oh, I can’t believe you. You tell
me what it is about.” “It is a fairy tale about an emperor who
had three sons –fishiori”, I said. I was fascinated that you could
understand that difficult language.
H.C: Yes. You claimed that that text was in Romanian and I fought
back, saying it was in Aromanian (Vlach). I had found this incredible
work from a woman called Papazizi-Papatheodorou. She was an
anthropologist actually, and she had collected all these myths of the
Vlach in two volumes. So I was copying Volume I, published in Greece.
She had the stories in Vlach, and on the other side she had an almost
literal translation into Greek. And that was my gold mine, my Rosetta
Stone, because I had 120 stories all in Vlach, in different dialects, that I
could study and analyze. And then you generously came in and helped
me translate the same texts into Romanian so I could compare them, to
see how different Romanian was from Vlach or Aromanian. In fact, it
ended up being very close to popular Romanian.
A.R: And then you went to Romania one day. Which part of
Romania? In Dobrogea?
H.C: No, actually I was in Cluj because I wanted to improve my
Romanian. So I went and did a program in Cluj, at the university. They
have excellent courses to learn Romanian and Hungarian (among other
languages!). I basically raided the library of the University of Cluj to
get all the bibliography for Aromanian, but I have still to go to
Dobrogea. I did go to Varna and found an Aromanian community in
Bulgaria as well! This is all for my future research.
A.R: Speaking of Aromanians, two recent events come to mind.
We had a play by Ion Luca Caragiale, the great Romanian
dramatist of the late19th/ early 20th century, whom Eugène
134
Ionesco has called “the greatest unknown dramatist”.
Caragiale heralds the theater of the absurd. Last Saturday we
saw here, in Washington, a play – “O noapte furtunoasa” by
Caragiale. It was sponsored and interpreted superbly by a
group of Aromanians from North Carolina.
H.C: I know, there’s also a group of Aromanians in New York. Actually
they also publish in Aromanian. But the play was in Romanian.
A.R: Yes, but they were dressed in traditional costumes, which
looked like Greek folk costumes. The other event was a major
exhibition in New York, organized by New York University’s
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. It was an
introduction to Old Europe’s great prehistoric “Cucuteni
Culture”, with objects found in Romania and Bulgaria: gold
and copper objects, painted ceramics, sculptures and human
figurines executed with unsurpassed artistry. This “Lost world
of Europe” existed some 7000 years ago and developed the
most advanced metal workmanship, even by today’s standards.
It is fascinating to think that there is now the theory that
Romanian, Aromanian, Vlach etc. could be the Daco-Illyric
language and the oldest language of Europe. And those groups
of people throughout the Balkan region, who across so many
centuries have been speaking languages which are connected,
could be the remnants of this long lost civilization. The “New
York Times” had a wonderful article on the exhibition and so
did the Smithsonian Institution. You didn’t go to see that exhibit
unfortunately.
H.C: No, I missed it.
A.R: I will lend you the book. I bought the book, illustrating the
research presented at this exhibition. I am interested to know
what connections you yourself can see.
H.C: I haven’t studied that so much because it’s more historical
linguistics …which is not my field. But, related to that, I remember that
when I was doing a summer school in Greece, I had a classmate, an
anthropologist, who said to me: “I was doing research in Macedonia and
135
someone gave me a book, but I don’t understand it. He gave me the
book as a present and sure enough, it’s in Vlach. I don’t remember the
name of the author. Of course, when I mentioned this to my colleagues
in Greece, they said “Oh no, this is nonsense.” The author says in the
Introduction, “I’m an engineer, not a linguist. But something that
always strikes me and has always fascinated me is that I can go and read
a lot of the Etruscan inscriptions like my native language.” What he
does in this book, is that he takes a picture of the objects that have
inscriptions in Etruscan. Some of them are written with Greek letters, of
course. Then he transcribes it into the Roman alphabet, he breaks it
down into words, and he says, “Look, this is Vlach”. So, he concludes
that Vlach is the mother of Latin and of all languages. I take that with a
grain of salt. I wish I had more time to explore that in more depth.
A.R: But it’s fascinating. You made that connection yourself in
comparing those languages in your studies. That is how you
arrived at Albanian. You wanted to see what the connections with
Vlach were. And in the process you came to write the first ever
manual of the Albanian language to be published in the U.S. I saw
you working at that voluminous book. How many volumes?
H.C: Well, we have just finished the first volume and it is about 600
pages long. It’s basically a textbook with its corresponding workbook
and recordings for the dialogs and readings. It’s going to be three
volumes, each one with its own workbook. It will be published by the
University of Wisconsin Press.
A.R: Three volumes, 600 pages each?
H.C: Well… The others will probably be smaller. You wondered “Why
Albanian now?” Because the Vlach or Aromanian community is not
only in Greece. It’s all over the Balkans.
A.R: Couldn’t this prove the theory that this is the oldest
language of Europe?
H.C: The Vlachs are all over the Balkans and their language has been in
contact with many other languages. In every country where it is spoken
it acquires a different shape, and that is exactly my field of research:
136
variation due to language contact. What happens when two languages
come into contact? How do they affect each other? After a good ten
years of studying Vlach in Greece, I thought it was about time to start
moving into the other Balkan regions to start on this. So my first step
was Romania and when I went to Cluj, I got a lot of written materials
and recordings from the Radio Romania International. They have a
program in Aromanian! I have plenty of materials now. The problem
with Aromanian in Romania is that Aromanian is so close to Romanian
that it’s easy for speakers to mix the two languages. So, after that I
thought it would be more interesting to start with Aromanian in Albania,
since the two languages are not connected at all. I was very happy when
I discovered that the University of Arizona in Tempe has free summer
classes of what they call “endangered languages”. And they teach them
for free. You only pay for room and board, and study for free. So I went
to Arizona to study Albanian.
A.R: I found out that there are two main dialects—Gegh and
Tosk.
H.C.: That’s right!
A.R: One in the north and the other in the south.
H.C.: Right again! And there is the Albanian spoken in Greece (called
Arvanitika) and the one spoken in Italy (called Arberesht). These are
older or more conservative forms of Albanian. We are planning to
discuss these in the last volume of our collection. I decided to start
studying Albanian so that I would be able to start seeing what happened
to Aromanian in Albania. So I went and took the summer course on
Elementary Albanian at the University of Arizona-Tempe. And they had
this wonderful teacher from Albania, Linda Mëniku. But the problem is
that there are no good materials for teaching Albanian. The only
material available was a book published by Routledge, which is not very
pedagogical and it’s based mainly on the northern dialect. It goes too
fast, no details, and the vocabulary is not very practical. So we used an
old textbook from Albania. However it was not adequate. Albanian is a
very complicated language; I think, in fact, it is more complicated than
Greek itself! Much more complicated than Romanian, for sure. The
grammar rules were not very clear. And Linda always insisted that it
137
had no rules (of course, as a linguist, I knew that that made no sense…
The problem was that it hadn’t been studied enough to find a coherent
set of rules).
A.R: You found it difficult from all three points of view?
Phonological? Morphological? Syntactical?
H.C.: Yes, syntactically it was fascinating! I mean it is very,
very complex. And Linda always said, “There’s no system. And that is
the problem with you generative grammarians. You are looking for
systems everywhere!” And I would reply, “Look, if there’s no system,
nobody would speak the language. There has to be a system!”
A.R: You go back to your Professor, to Chomsky.
H.C: Take, for instance, the adjectives in Albanian. The adjectives are
very complicated. For example, take the expression “the good girl” -there must be at least forty ways to say that, depending on the gender,
the number, and the case. But they also have an agreement for
definiteness, which you don’t have in Romanian. It’s very complicated
and it is sensitive to distance from the noun. Anyway, I figured out the
rule for the adjectives. So I gave it to my teacher and she said, “Wow!
That works.” We tested and retested it, and it seemed to work. Then I
published an article on the adjectives in Albanian in the journal Lingua.
At the end of the semester, I went to the teacher and asked her if she
would be interested in publishing a textbook for Albanian. I had done
research and bought all the Albanian language textbooks written in
English, Spanish, French and German, and none of them were very
pedagogical or very useful for anyone trying to learn or do research on
Albanian. Linda is a professor in Tirana, she is getting a PhD in
linguistics and she teaches journalism at the University of Tirana. So we
started to write the book.
A.R: And she’s also in Arizona?
H.C: She’s in Arizona just for the summer. Then we contacted
Wisconsin Press. They have a Balkan series, so they have a book for
Bulgarian, one for Macedonian, one for Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. And
immediately they wrote back: “Yes, we’re interested. Send us a
138
chapter.” We sent them a chapter, they approved it and gave us the go
ahead for the book.
A.R: Oh, and you worked very hard. I remember, day and
night. Enormous effort.
H.C: It was a lot of work. We basically finished the book in a year and
we tested it the following summer with the students at Arizona. They
made suggestions, we incorporated those suggestions. Then we tested it
again in Albania, in an intensive course that the University was
organizing there. So the book has been thoroughly tested.
A.R.: Only the first volume is in print?
H.C: Only the first book with its corresponding workbook. It will be
called “Discovering Albanian”. It’s such a complicated language that
we could not do it in only one volume. It’s so complicated that, for
instance, in addition to the moods that we know for verbs, it has a
desiderative and an exclamative mood. We couldn’t tackle all the
grammar in the first volume. The first volume is just for basic
communication. The second volume gets to the nitpicky parts of the
grammar. And then the third volume will include a discussion of the
dialect and the Albanian diaspora.
A.R: To what degree did studying Albanian made you
understand better Vlach, Aromanian, and those variants of
Megleno-Romanian?
H.C.: Well, basically, it’s a matter of understanding the system. For
example, Romanian doesn’t have the exclamative mood, Aromanian
does. Is it formed the same way? Used in the same contexts? All that
needs research… To prepare myself for the intermediate book, I went
back to Arizona for a second summer of Albanian. But the teacher (an
American lady who lived in Kosovo) was scared of me! She was
insecure, I guess. So I was expelled from the class. I have never been
expelled from a class! Only from my country! Ha! ha!…
A.R: You knew too much!
139
H.C: I guess she was scared! One day she started crying when I asked a
question. The director of the Institute came and said: “Look, the teacher
cannot teach with you in the class, can you do another language?” So I
started studying Macedonian, which was on my list anyway.
Macedonian looks promising for Aromanian, since Aromanian is taught
in the schools, so we have textbooks and everything. That’s the next
step of my research. I do want to go to Macedonia.( Don’t you ever call
this country by this name when you are in Greece!). I was going to go
there when I was in Greece, as I spent my last sabbatical in Greece, but
the border was closed because of all the problems with Macedonia.
A.R: So discovering languages is a fascinating life of
adventure, and the next one is Macedonian.
H.C: Yes. The Macedonian teacher, knowing that I was writing a
textbook with my Albanian teacher, also wanted me to write a textbook
with him, but I have to finish the Albanian project first. I have enough
on my plate. And … the most curious part of all this, is that my
department doesn’t recognize it as “academic research”.
A.R: I hope they will solve the problem, because some
departments even consider research papers that are published
in newspapers.
H.C: Yes, I know, but what I do is definitely research. We are also
trying to create a series of books that adheres to the Common European
Framework for Foreign Languages, widely used in Europe now. So I
had to go and read all the literature, criteria and criticism.
A.R: Yes, I know that, I was here at a colloquium at
Georgetown. We had a day of study with the professors, and
you were my professor in that section, and you introduced us to
the European Union norms.
H.C: That’s right. I’m still working with those norms. I also
implemented them in the Greek program here at Georgetown. Our
Greek Department is the only department doing that! Also, together
with some colleagues from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, we
have put together a project to start some bilingual Greek-Albanian
140
programs for children in Thessaloniki. I am helping with the Albanian
part. Our materials will be directly useful. In the meantime, Routledge,
from England, has also contacted Linda and me to write the second
edition of Colloquial Albanian. That book is due sometime early next
year.
A.R: You are a pioneer in making the connection between the way
they teach languages in Europe and the way we teach language in
the United States and this is another way to enrich ourselves.
H.C: I guess it’s our job as language teachers to keep abreast with the
developments, both in the fields of language acquisition and
methodologies. So one of my goals then for this Albanian book is to
write it according to those standards and recent research. Sooner or
later, Albania will be part of the European Union and our materials will
become useful.
A.R: Many difficulties…
H.C: Yes, there are many difficulties. But I think they will eventually
go away. If not, it doesn’t matter… I will continue working on these
projects. I get a sense of professional satisfaction from all this.
A.R: I congratulate you. You are one of the true scholars of our
university. Not only a great scholar but also a great professor. You were
selected by the students as Professor of the Year.
H.C: That was some time ago. At that time we received a diploma! Now
they get a little money as well!
A.R: I can see the passion today in what you explain to me, the
unrelenting passion in pursuing your research and the passion
and generosity that you have in teaching. I understand now why
the students always love to take your classes. As a matter of fact,
two of my students this semester took courses with you and loved
them.
H.C: Which ones?
141
A.R: One took Greek from you because she’s of Greek origin
but didn’t know Greek; the other one took Spanish with you. I
also knew a PhD candidate who loved your Linguistic course.
H.C: My students always joke because every summer I do a project in
some country or other. This summer, I’m going to Vietnam. When I
come back, they are afraid that all of their assignments will be based on
Vietnamese. So you can tell every year where I was that summer from
the problems I assign…
A.R: You do that in the Linguistics course you teach? Which
course is that?
H.C: I teach syntax, Generative Syntax I, II, III, IV.
A.R: We didn’t even mention the books that you have published
on the evolution and revolution of linguistic theory and the book
that you edited with Paula Kempchinsky.
H.C: Actually, the press made a horrible mistake with that book. We
wrote the book in honor of Otero when he retired (Paula and I both
studied under Otero. Now she is a professor at the University of Iowa).
but the press forgot to put on the cover that it was in his honor. We had
checked the entire book for typos.
A.R: But you didn’t check the cover.
H.C: No, they didn’t send us the cover to check. When the book
appeared, it was already too late to change anything. But it was all in
the Introduction and Carlos didn’t mind.
But it was a little
embarrassing.
A.R.: You just said that this summer you are going to Vietnam,
of all places. A new language to discover?
H.C.: Yes, that’s my new language…the language is fascinating, too,
because it’s my first tone language. I couldn’t hear the tones the first
summer I was there!
142
A.R.: What exactly do you do in Vietnam?
H.C.: I work as a volunteer there, teaching English. I usually spend
July and August there. And they really need all the help they can get
because the government is now finally opening up. At first I worked in
Da Nang for a couple of summers, training engineers in academic
English. It was a program sponsored by the Vietnamese government.
Last summer I worked in Nha Trang, teaching street children and
college students. It was an incredible experience. I had never met so
many nice people so thirsty and motivated to learn languages. I’m
going back this summer, if everything goes according to plan.
A.R.: Well, congratulations for your extraordinary accomplishments
and thank you very much for your precious time. You are so young: half
of life is ahead of you. Perhaps soon you will also go to India, where
you could “boucler la boucle”[close the circle] making connections
between the Balkan and the Indian languages, and arrive at a master
work on Indo-European languages!.
143
Book Reviews
Besnik Mustafaj, Vară fără întoarcere, roman, versiunea
română: Luan Topciu, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, 2007, 176 p.
Născut în 1958, la Bajram Curri, în Tropoja,
nordul Albaniei, poetul, prozatorul, eseistul,
jurnalistul, omul politic Besnik Mustafaj este editat
în limba română cu romanul Vară fără întoarcere
(ediţia albaneză: Tirana, 1989).
Vară fără întoarcere se înscrie în categoria romanelor onirice
moderne, autorul conducând firul naraţiunii unei „poveşti” de dragoste
aparte, impregnată de mituri ale lumii albaneze (Constantin şi
Doruntina, ori, de ce nu, Aga Ymer din Ulcinj, cel trimis de sultan la
război) şi balcanice (Odiseu/ Penelopa). Este o căutare/ călătorie între
reverie şi vis, în care memoria/ realitatea este substituită/ suplinită de
vis. Un vis diurn, o iubire între Sana, femeie pentru care viaţa însemna
demult singurătate, şi Gori, mort în lagăr, în camera de gazare, în 1944.
Construcţia naraţiunii şi a personajelor este axată pe mai multe planuri
semantice, cu rădăcini în mitologie – de pildă cel al revenirii din morţi
pentru împlinirea jurământului (Gori îi promisese Sanei că vor merge la
mare, vor face un copil), cel al aşteptării (Sana îşi aşteaptă iubitul
aidoma Penelopei, cu care se compară într-o replică din roman: „Eu nu
eram Penelopa, care pentru a suporta timpul fără soţul ei… ţesea şi
desţesea covorul… Eu acceptam neîntoarcerea ta”).
Besnik Mustafaj găseşte o cale de a îmbrăca simbolul/ mitul în
haina zilelor noastre, de a „aşeza” povestea/ drumul visului care
pătrunde în lumea mitului, a mitului care urcă în vis şi pogoară în
„realitatea” personajelor, între aşteptare şi iluzie, într-un „loc-timp” în
care secvenţele de prezent se ţes cu cele din trecut, faptul cu dorinţa/
ideea şi imaginarul/ visul cu simbolul. Totul este învăluit în pânza
ambiguităţii. Astfel, de pildă, Gori este fie un bărbat condamnat la
moarte care revine la femeia iubită să-şi îndeplinească jurământul, fie un
suflet care găseşte calea de a reveni din moarte, o bucată de vreme,
pentru a re-desena alături de Sana fragmente din viaţa rămasă
„neterminată”.
144
Versiunea în limba română este semnată de Luan Topciu, nume
cunoscut cititorului de la noi; a publicat, printre altele, şi o serie de
articole şi volume dedicate literaturii sud-est europene.
Marius Chelaru
Besnik Mustafaj, Summer without Return, novel, Romanian version: Luan
Topciu, Junimea Publishing House, Iaşi, 2007, 176 p.
Besnik Mustafaj was born in 1958, Bajram Curri, Tropoja, north
of Albania. He is a poet, a prose and essay writer, a journalist and a
politician; he was published in Romania with his novel Summer without
Return (Albanian edition: Tirana, 1989).
This is a modern onirical novel, where the author develops the
narrative line of a particular „love story”, full of myths of the Albanian
world (Constantin and Doruntina, or - why not - Aga Ymer from Ulcinj,
sent to war by the sultan) and the Balkan (Odiseu/ Penelopa). It is a
search/ travel between reverie and dream, where memory/ reality is
replaced by dream. A daydream, love between Sana, the woman for
whom life has meant, for a long time, solitude, and Gori who had died
in a gas chamber in 1944. The way in which narration is constructed as
well as that of the characters is done on several different semantic plans,
rooted in mythology – for example that of resurrection in order to fulfil
an oath (Gori had promised to Sana that they would have gone to the
seaside, and have a baby ), that of waiting (Sana waits for her lover as
Penelope had done, to whom she compares herself in a replica from the
novel: „I was not Penelope, who to survived without her husband was
making and remaking the carpet. I accepted that he was not coming
back”).
Besnik Mustafaj finds a way to adorn the symbol/ myth in a
contemporary outfit, „to set” the story/ the way of the dream which
penetrates the myth, the way of the myth which is rising onto the dream
and going down to reality onto the characters’ reality, between waiting
and illusion, onto a „place-time” where today sequences melts with that
of the past, facts with desire/idea and imaginary/dream with the symbol.
Everything is dressed into the veil of ambiguity. For example Gori is
either a men sent to death who comes back to the women he loves to
145
fulfil his oath, or a soul who finds his way to come back from death in
order to re-design with Sana fragments from their „unfinished” life.
The Romanian version is signed by Luan Topciu, a familiar name
to the Romanian reader; he also published several articles and volumes
dedicated to the South-East European literature.
Translation: Maria Alexe
Ion Teodorescu, Coloniile albaneze din România.
România şi statul albanez (1912-1914)/ Kolonitë
shqiptare të Rumanisë. Rumania dhe shteti shqiptar
(1912-1914), ediţie bilingvă română-albaneză, Editura
Privirea, Bucureşti, 2008, 112 p.
Despre Albania şi legăturile cu România,
despre comunitatea albaneză din România şi activitatea unor membri ai
acesteia în cultura română, dar şi pentru/ în folosul Renaşterii/ Rilindja
albaneze s-au publicat relativ puţine cărţi (parte le-am semnalat eu
însumi în revistele Cronica, Iaşi, şi Albanezul, Bucureşti).1
Structura cărţii cuprinde un Cuvânt înainte, Capitolul I –
Coloniile albaneze din România şi Mişcarea pentru Independenţa
Albaniei, Capitolul II – Tânărul stat albanez şi relaţiile românoalbaneze (noiembrie 1912-martie 1914), Capitolul III – Guvernarea
prinţului de Weld. Statele balcanice şi marile Puteri (martie 1914 septembrie 1914) şi Concluzii.
Autorul face o trecere în revistă a unor aspecte interesante, mare
parte mai puţin cunoscute publicului larg. Sunt multe informaţii, opinii
legate de acestea, date, cifre statistice cu ajutorul cărora îşi
argumentează expozeul. Citim despre Naum Panajot Veqilharxhi, care a
1
Cristia Maksutovici, Confluenţe culturale româno-albaneze, Ed. Kriterion, Bucureşti,
1995; Gelcu Sefedin Maksutovici, Istoria comunităţii albaneze din România, Ed.
Kriterion, 1992, Istoria comunităţii albaneze din România, vol. I, prefaţă, selecţie,
adnotări G.S. Maksutovici, sub egida UCAR, Bucureşti, 2000; Elida Petoshati, Aspecte
ale culturii europene cu precădere romanice în publicaţiile albaneze din România –
secolul XX, prefaţă de Cr. Maksutovici, Ed. Deliana, Bucureşti, 1999; Marius Dobrescu,
Drumul speranţei. O cronică a comunităţii albaneze din România, povestită de ea
însăşi, ed. a III-a, Ed. Privirea, Bucureşti, 2009.
146
tipărit la Brăila, în 1844, primul Abecedar al limbii albaneze, despre
rolul coloniilor albaneze din Egipt, Turcia, Italia, România în pregătirea
independenţei, delegarea de către coloniile albaneze din România a lui
Thimi Milko, în 1886, pentru a introduce în şcoli limba albaneză în
locul celei greceşti, despre începuturile pregătirii profesorilor de limbă
albaneză la Bucureşti, apoi Elbasan, Albania, înfiinţarea societăţii
„Drita”/ „Lumina”, în 1884, în România, în 1887 a „Dituriei” (facţiune
desprinsă din „Drita”), apariţia în 1887 a revistei „Albanezul”. Sunt şi
documente, date statistice, analize despre starea ţărilor din regiune,
poziţia Marilor Puteri, suportul diplomaţiei române, despre considerarea
de către ambele părţi a substratului aromân drept un element important
de legătură ş.a.
Ion Teodorescu abordează guvernarea prinţului de Weld, legat,
se ştie, de casa domnitoare din România, pornind de la câteva planuri –
interesele Albaniei, cum i-a sprijinit România accederea la tron, cum nu
s-au ţinut de cuvânt ţările occidentale în ce priveşte sprijinul promis,
situaţia marcată de războaiele balcanice, înţelegerile premergătoare
primului război mondial, rolul nefast al lui Hasan Paşa Prishtina,
ministru şi sub administraţia otomană, care, scrie autorul, a sabotat
inclusiv stârnind revolte ş.a. Aminteşte şi alte opinii – Gazmend Shpuza
(„Congresul istoriei Naţionale”, Tirana, 2000, p. 14): „Rebeliunea anilor
1913-1914 a fost organizată de forţele naţionaliste, ca reacţie la originea
germană a Prinţului de Weld, fără a fi vorba de etatism sau a reduce
totul la Hadji Qamil1”.
O carte care poate avea aportul ei la înţelegerea mai bună a
rolului/ activităţilor patriotice ale albanezilor din România, cu atât mai
mult cu cât, scrie autorul, „interesul României, al politicienilor ei şi al
oamenilor ei de cultură, precum şi cel al albanezilor din coloniile din
România […] arată o prietenie profundă între cele două popoare ale
noastre.”
Marius Chelaru
1
Lider local musulman, tânăr ofiţer al armatei turce, originar din Elbasan. Viza
întemeierea unui stat islamic în Albania.
147
Ion Teodorescu, Abanian Colonies in Romania and the Albanian State (19121914)/ Kolonitë shqiptare të Rumanisë. Rumania dhe shteti shqiptar (19121914), bilingual edition Romanian/ Albaneese, Privirea Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2008, 112 p.
Only a few books were published in Romania about Albania and
its connection with our country, about the Albanian community from
Romania and the activity of its members in Romanian culture for the
benefit of Albanian Revival/ Rilindja. (I wrote myself about some of
them in literary review such as Cronica, Iaşi, or Albanezul, Bucureşti)1.
The structure of the book consists of Foreword, Chapter I –
Albanian Communities in Romania and The movement for Albanian
Independence. Chapter II – Young Albanian State and Romania/
Albanian relationships (November 1912- March 1914); Chapter III –
Price De Weld Government. Balkan States and Great Powers (March
1914 - September 1914) and Conclusions).
The author is analysing some interesting aspects, some of them
less known by the large public. The author is using a lot of information,
opinions about them, data, and statistical data in as arguments for his
essay. One can read about Naum Panajot Veqilharxhi, who in 1844
published at Braila the first ABC of Albanian language and about the
role of Albanian colonies in Egypt. Turkey, Italy, Romania and the part
they played in preparing the independence of Albania, or about the fact
that Thimi Milko, in 1886, was nominated by the Albanian colonies
from Romania to introduce Albanian language, instead of Greek, as an
official language in schools; one can read also about the way in which
Albanian teachers were trained in Bucharest, then in Elbasan, Albania,
about the establishment of „Drita”/ „Light” society , in 1884, in
Romania, then that of „Dituria” in 1887 (a faction of „Drita”), and about
the apparition of magazine Albanezul. One can find documents,
statistical data, and analysis about countries of the region, about the
position of Main political Powers, the support of Romanian diplomacy,
1
Cristia Maksutovici, Romanian-Albanian Cultural Confluences, Ed. Kriterion,
Bucureşti, 1995; Gelcu Sefedin Maksutovici, History of the Albanian Community from
Romania, Kriterion, 1992, History of the Albanian Community from Romania, vol. I,
foreword, selection, annotation G.S. Maksutovici, under the name of UCAR, Bucharest,
2000; Elida Petoshati, Aspects of the European Culture mainly of Romanesque ones in
Albanese publications from Romania XX century, foreword by Cr. Maksutovici, Ed.
Deliana, Bucharest, 1999; M. Dobrescu, Dway of Hope. A Chronicle of the Albanian
Community from Romania told by itself, III-rd.edition, Ed. Privirea, Bucharest, 2009.
148
about the fact that both partners considered the Macedonian strata an
important linking element, etc.
Ion Teodorescu writes about prince de Weld government, a
person connected to the Romanian royal house, taking into
consideration some plans: Albania’s interests, how Romania supported
his claim of the throne, how western countries kept their promises
concerning their support, the situation marked by the Balkan wars,
negotiations that took place before the First World War, the malefic role
of Hasan Paşa Prishtina, a minister under the Ottoman rule as well who
organised a subversive activity including the fact that he set up
uprisings. Other opinions are mentioned too – Gazmend Shpuza
(„Congress of National History”, Tirana, 2000, p. 14): „1913-1914
Uprising was organised by nationalistic forces as a reaction to the
German origin of Prince de Weld, without any estates or as if things are
reduced to Hadji Qamil1”.
A book that may have its role in a better understanding of the
patriotic role/ activities, moreover, as the author writes, ”Romanian’s
interest as well as that of its politicians or cultural men, or that of the
Albanian people from Romanian colonies[…] shows a deep friendship
between the two countries.”
Translation: Maria Alexe
Ismail Kadare, Anul Negru; Concurs de frumuseţe
masculină la Stâncile Blestemate, traducere din limba
albaneză, postfaţă şi note: Marius Dobrescu, Editura
Polirom, Iaşi, 2006, 234 p.
Ne vom referi numai la prima naraţiune, Anul
negru, care vorbeşte despre una dintre cele mai
încâlcite şi mai zbuciumate perioade din istoria
Albaniei – cea de după declararea independenţei, adică oricând între anii
1912 – 1914. Se formau şi se disipau „stătuleţe”, unele cu capitală,
altele fără, unele musulmane, altele creştine, unele cu nume albanez,
altele nu, apăreau şi erau spulberate armate „naţionale” sau străine,
grupuri şi bande de tot felul, ca aceea a lui Shestan Verda, „kapedan”
1
He was a local Muslim leader, a young officer of Turkish army, from Elbasan. He
intended to establish a Muslim state in Albania
149
(comandant, căpitan), considerat ulterior, în tot felul de relatări, cel mai
frumos dintre comandanţii de oşti de pe acele locuri – capturat, în final,
într-o ambuscadă şi apoi ucis, sau Esad Paşa ori Kus Baba, care voiau o
Albanie re-alipită la Imperiul Otoman.
Kadare asociază toate evenimentele cu apariţia unei comete: „au
existat tot felul de ipoteze: ba că, încă de la început, apariţia cometei i-a
dat anului acela aura de deşertăciune…, ba că, mai tîrziu… oamenii s-au
convins că necazurile veniseră de la sine”. Dar „cometa le stârnise unora
o frică nebună…, în vreme ce altora la adusese în suflet o undă de
speranţă”. Din cauza acestor evenimente sumbre, poate legate de
cometă, poate nu, anul acela a fost numit nu numai de „pesimiştii
incurabili, dar şi de cei care vedeau în jurul lor numai flori şi veselie”,
„anul negru”. Conflicte latente de secole între musulmani şi creştini,
între vecini care avea de împărţit un „ceva” care poate era de acum
rătăcit ca însemnătate în negura timpului, moştenitori care pretindeau că
au girul istoriei, unii de la Skanderbeg chiar, ori alţii – cu sânge mai
mult sau mai puţin regal – veniţi din toate părţile Europei pentru a ocupa
tronul regatului albanez, satele (care par nişte insule prea îndepărtate de
capitală) în care „adevărul” căpăta haina locului şi faptele erau
„îmbrăcate” adesea în explicaţii cel puţin ciudate, oameni care porneau
la luptă ca după o scânteie şi sfârşeau cine ştie cum şi unde, mituri
uneori împănate cu frânturi din alte mituri, toate acestea ţes atmosfera
din naraţiunea lui Kadare.
Marius Chelaru
Ismail Kadare, Black Gold; Male Beauty Contest at Curst Cliffs,
translated from Albanian, foreword, and notes by: Marius Dobrescu,
Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi, 2006, 234 p.
Only the first narration Black Gold will be mentioned, that one
which refers to one of the most complicated periods of the Albanian
history – after the declaration of independence, any time 1912 – 1914.
Little states were established and then they disappeared, some with a
capital, others without, some Muslims others Christian, some with
Albanian names, others without. They appeared and they were
destroyed by „national armies or foreign ones, all kind of gangs like that
150
of Shestan Verda, „kapedan” (commandant, captain) lately considered
by all kind of storytellers as the most beautiful army leader of the region
– finally captured, in an ambush and then killed, or Esad Paşa or Kus
Baba, who wanted an Albanian state in the Ottoman Empire.
Kadare associates all events to the apparition of a comet there
were a lot of hypothesis appeared: „One was that from the very
beginning an aura of vanity was given to the whole year by the comet
…, another was that everybody believed that troubles just happened.”
”But it was sure that the comet made people to feel terrible afraid” …,”
while other felt a wind of hope.” Because of those dark events, which
might be connected to the comet, or not, that year was named by the
pessimists and by those who use to see around just joy and flowers “the
black year”. Conflicts that lasted for centuries between Muslims and
Christians, between neighbours that had something to share, something
that had been already lost in an uncertain past, between those who
claimed that they inherited the past from Skanderbeg, or others having
a blood more or less royal – People that came from all over Europe to
take the throne of Albanian kingdom, villages (islands far away from the
capital) where truth looks like somebody wearing the local costume and
facts are “dressed” in strange explanations, people that started a fight
with enthusiasm and ended God knows where and when, myths stuffed
with fragments from other myths, all those are part of Kadare’s prose.
Translation: Maria Alexe
Marius Dobrescu, Drumul speranţei. O cronică a
comunităţii albaneze din România, povestită de ea însăşi,
ed. a III-a, Editura Privirea, Bucureşti, 2009, 288 p.
Cartea este semnată de Marius Dobrescu,
autor a numeroase articole despre Albania (ţară în
care a făcut studii universitare), specialist în
literatura/ cultura albaneză, traducătorul lui Kadare
în limba română. Volumul, scrie M. Dobrescu în
Cuvânt înainte, este „o părticică din biografia
comunităţii albaneze din România”, „o a doua patrie pentru albanezi”,
şi, totodată, o „autobiografie”, pentru că „sunt adunate poveştile câtorva
familii albaneze pe pământ românesc”; el cuprinde trei secţiuni:
151
„Drumul speranţei” (cea mai consistentă, cca. 200 de pagini), „Evocări”
şi „Documente şi mărturii despre comunităţile albaneze din România”.
Sunt în carte „poveştile unor albanezi care au trăit la noi doar o
perioadă sau au ales ca a doua patrie România – de la personalităţi ca
Asdreni (Aleks Stavre Drenova (1872-1945/ 47), sosit în capitala de azi
a României în toamna lui 1885, „un korcear melancolic” ori patrioţi ca
Gjergj Bubani, a cărui viaţă a fost distrusă de regimul comunist din
Albania – la avocaţi, economişti, artişti, oameni de cultură, doctori,
truditori de toate felurile etc., etc. Sunt şi poveştile unor personalităţi ale
culturii române ale căror părinţi sunt de origine albaneză; un exemplu –
Cezar Ivănescu, a cărui mamă, Xantipa, scrie M. Dobrescu, s-a născut la
Korcea. Ivănescu spune că făcuse călătoria în Korcea în 1973 pentru a
se lămuri: „nu am reuşit nici până acum să clarific problema originii
mele albaneze şi iată din ce motive: bunicii mei din partea mamei aveau
sânge şi grecesc şi albanez, după opinia lor”. Şi, adăuga poetul
(subliniind că nu e dorinţa respingerii originii albaneze): „nu făceau
cumva parte din acea clasă bogată de aromâni din Albania care, datorită
averii, aveau acces la cultură, la şcolarizare, şi făcuseră şcoala în greacă
şi albaneză?”
Sunt „poveşti” de viaţă ale unor familii mai vechi sau mai nou
venite în România (cum este cazul Lediei Muşat, sosită la noi după
1990), care iubesc România, limba română, dar, asemenea familiei de
medici craioveni Irma şi Gjeri Nuredini, ştiu că „e important să nu uiţi
de unde vii” şi că, aidoma Brânduşei Opari-Pantelimon (fiica lui
Anastase H. Opari, născut la Korcea în 1908, ajuns la Bucureşti când
avea doar 12 ani), trebuie să încerce să păstreze „memoria originii
albaneze”, ştiind că poţi reuşi în viaţă, pentru că „nimic nu e prea greu
când vrei cu adevărat”. Sunt pagini de viaţă interesante nu doar pentru
că vorbesc despre destine care nu s-au lăsat frânte de vânt, ci prin felul
în care au păstrat vie amintirea originii, a părinţilor lor (lucru vizibil prin
ce spun, prin numărul semnificativ de fotografii); ele construiesc o
frântură din istoria ţării noastre, a Sud Estului Europei chiar, cu
problemele de atunci, frământările, dramele, trădările la diferite paliere
de amplitudine socială, uitate în baia de culoare sepia a trecutului. Dar şi
bucuria de a putea spune „acasă” unui alt loc decât cel în care te-ai
născut, în care s-au născut părinţii tăi, pentru că felul în care ai putut să
trăieşti aici, în care ai fost primit, justifică asta.
Şi nu puţini sunt albanezii care spun, aidoma Marikăi Bodor
Ziu, doctor din Braşov, „România mi s-a părut un paradis”.
152
Interesante sunt şi textele din secţiunea evocări, cu Dionis
Bubani, scriitorul îndrăgostit de România, Nikollaq Zoi, „una dintre
figurile emblematice ale coloniei albaneze din Bucureşti”, fost prefect
de Korcea şi Girokastër în care citim şi despre viaţa artistică a
Bucureştiului începutului de secol XX, despre colonia albaneză din
Bucureşti. La fel de interesantă este şi partea de „documente şi mărturii”
– în care citim despre masacrarea arnăuţilor eterişti în 1812, în
Bucureşti, despre „Drita” („Lumina”), prima societate albaneză de
cultură care a fost înfiinţată în România, despre cum se alegeau şi cine
erau liderii albanezilor din România lui 1915 ş.a.
Este greu să treci „în fugă” peste atâtea nume, atâtea poveşti de
viaţă, peste atâtea pagini, fragmente de istorie trăită, pagini despre
întâmplări, despre oameni care veneau spre România pe „drumul
speranţei” (formulare sugerată, spune M. Dobrescu, de unul dintre
emigranţi). Oameni care au constituit şi constituie o comunitate
remarcabilă prin comportament şi realizările personale în România.
Marius Dobrescu ne oferă un mănunchi de fire de istorie într-o carte
interesantă.
Marius Chelaru
Marius Dobrescu, Way of hope. A Chronicle of the Albanian Community from
Romania Told by themselves. The IIIrd. Edition, Privirea Publishing House,
Bucharest.
The book is signed by Marius Dobrescu, author of many articles
dedicated to Albania (the country where he accomplished his academic
training), specialist of Albanian literature, Kadare’s translator in
Romanian. The volume is, according to what Marius Dobrescu writes in
the Foreword, „a part of the biography of the Albanian community from
Romania” „a second native county for Albania” and, at the same time, „
an autobiography” because it gathers stories of some Albanian families
which lived in Romania” It has three sections: “Way of hope” (the
largest, about 200 pages), “Remember”, and “Documents and
testimonials about the Albanian Community from Romania”.
153
It may be found in that book „Stories of Albanian people who
lived in Romania, only for a period or of these who have chosen
Romania to be their second country, from personalities such as Asdreni
(Aleks Stavre Drenova (1872-1945/ 47), who arrived in Romania’s
capital in 1885 as „a melancholic korcear” or patriots as Gjergj Bubani,
whose life was destroyed by the Albanian communist regime,
economists artists, cultural men doctors labours of all kind. There are
stories of some personalities of Romanian culture whose parents are of
Albanian origin, as for example – Cezar Ivănescu, whose mother,
Xantipa, according to M. Dobrescu, was born in Korcea. Ivănescu tells
about his travel to Korcea in 1973 in order to clarify himself. „I was not
able to clarify the subject of my Albanian origin and here are some
reasons: my grandparents from my mother side were of both Greek and
Albanian origin, at least on their opinion. The poet adds (underlining
that he does not want to reject his Albanian origin): „may they were
members of that wealthy class of Macedonian people living in Albania,
who due to their fortune had access to both Albanian and Greek culture
and academic training?”
There are „life stories” of some old or new families (such as that
of Ledia Muşat, who arrived in Romania after 1990) who love Romania,
the language, but as the family of doctor Irma şi Gjeri Nuredini, from
Craiova, who know that it is important to remember where are you
coming from or as Brânduşa Opari-Pantelimon (daughter of Anastase H.
Opari, born at Korcea in 1908, who had arrived in Bucharest when she
was only 12). They have to try to preserve „the memory of the Albanian
origin”, knowing that you may be successful in your life „nothing is too
difficult if you really want it.” There are interesting stories not only
because they speak about destinies that has never been broken, but for
the fact that they have never forgotten their origin, that of their parents
(thing that is obvious by what they say, by the number of photos) They
built up o fragment of their country history that of the South-East
Europe, with their problems, unrests and dramas of different intensity,
forgotten in the sepia coloured past. There is also the joy to call „Home”
to another place then that were you or your parents had been borned
because of the way in which you lived here, you were welcomed.
And there are not just a few Albanian people who just like
Marika Bodor Ziu, doctor from Braşov, to be able to say „Romania
looks like Paradise to me”.
Text from section Remember are interesting due to texts of
154
Dionis Bubani, a writer who loves Romania, or Nikollaq Zoi, „one of
the outstanding figures of Albanian community from Romania”, exsheriff of Korcea and Girokastër where one can read about Bucharest
artistic life at the beginning of the XX century, about the Albanian
colony from Bucharest. Section about documents and testimonials is
very interesting too. One can read about the massacre of the Albanian
soldiers from the Eteria in 1812, in Bucharest, about „Drita” („The
light”), first Albanian cultural society established in Romania, about
how the Albanian leaders were elected and who they were in Romania,
in 1915, etc.
It is hard to quickly overview so many names, life stories,
fragments of life and history about people who came to Romania on the
„way of hope”(name suggested according to M. Dobrescu, by one of the
emigrants ). They are people that are part of a remarkable community
with outstanding achievements in Romania. Marius Dobrescu offers to
his readers a remarkable series of historical facts and destinies in an
interesting book.
Translation: Maria Alexe
Ismail Kadare, Mesagerii ploii, traducere din limba
albaneză: Marius Dobrescu, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti,
2010, 234 p.
Numele lui Ismail Kadare, autor balcanic
binecunoscut în lumea occidentală, este deja familiar
cititorilor români. Ultimul său roman, Mesagerii ploii,
este aparent un roman istoric, fiindcă acţiunea se petrece în perioada
medievală. În fapt, este mai mult o reflecţie asupra vieţii contemporane,
deoarece viziunea scriitorului şi ceea ce acesta urmăreşte să comunice
cititorilor săi aparţin gândirii mitice şi înţelegerii omului postmodern.
Două lumi se confruntă în Albania secolului al XV-lea: marea armată
otomană care încearcă să cucerească cetatea şi să îl înfrângă pe
Skanderbeg, expresie a forţei Islamului, şi oastea nevăzută a albanezilor
creştini. Ceea ce părea o expediţie uşoară se dovedeşte o încleştare pe
viaţă şi pe moarte din care nimeni nu câştigă, toată lumea pierde. Este
un război lipsit de glorie, o luptă a nervilor şi a manipulărilor, prea puţin
diferit de războaiele moderne.
155
Nu există în romanul lui Kadare un fir epic, o succesiune de
episoade ca în romanele istorice clasice. Tragismul atmosferei este
accentuat de aşteptarea nervoasă a victoriei, de atmosfera de pândă şi de
intrigi şi mai ales de disperarea cu care se apără luptătorii din cetate.
Evenimentele istorice propriu-zise sunt destul de cunoscute unui număr
mare de cititori ceea îi permite prozatorului să insiste asupra prezentării
mentalităţilor, a atmosferei, să schimbe perspectiva şi să-l facă pe cititor
să privească întâmplările atât din perspectiva turcilor, cât şi a
albanezilor.
Primele ploi de la începutul toamnei pun capăt unei campanii
obositoare. Pentru turci este dezastrul, pentru albanezi semnul speranţei,
al victoriei, chiar dacă plecarea duşmanului este vremelnică. Aparent,
albanezii au câştigat şi turcii se retrag, dar nu e decât o iluzie. Puterea
politică şi economică a otomanilor îi va supune în cele din urmă,
încercând să le fure limba, să le înlocuiască credinţa, să îi transforme în
animale supuse şi robotitoare. Aşa cum spune unul dintre personaje,
depinde de ei dacă le vor cuceri şi spiritul, transformându-i din vulturi în
şoareci.
Maria Alexe
Ismail Kadare, Messangers of the Rain, translated from Albanian: Marius
Dobrescu, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2010, 234 p.
The name of Ismail Kadare, a well-known Balkan prose writer,
famous in the western world, is familiar to the Romanian readers. His
last novel Messengers of the Rain, first published in French, then in
Albanian, is apparently a historical novel, because the action takes place
in the Middle Age. Actually, it is a reflection upon contemporary life,
because the writer’s vision and what he intends to communicate to his
readers belongs to the mythical thinking and to the postmodern men
understanding. Two worlds are fighting in the XVth. century in Albania
- the great Ottoman army which wants to take the citadel and to defend
Skanderbeg, an image of the Muslims force, and the small invisibles
army of the Christian Albanians. What seemed to be an essay battle
prove to be a terrible fight, nobody wins, everybody loose. It is a war
without glory, a struggle of nerves and manipulation, quite similar to the
modern wars.
156
There is no an epic string, a successive order of episodes in
Kadare’s as it used to be in the classical ones. The tragic atmosphere is
underlined by the nervous waiting of victory, by intrigues, moreover by
desperate fight of the citadel defenders. The real historical events are
well known for a large part of the readers and due to this the author is
able to insist upon the presentation of mentalities, atmosphere, to change
the perspective and to avoid the reader to see the events according to the
Turks and the Albanian perspective as well.
The first rains of the first autumn days put an end to that
exhausted campaign. For the Turks this is the disaster, for the Albanian
it is a sign of hope. Apparently the Albanian had won and the Turks
gave up, but it is only an illusion. The political and economical power of
the Ottomans conquered them finally, trying to steal their language, to
replace their faith and to transform them in obedient and working
animals. As one of the novel’s characters says it is up to them if their
soul will be conquered as well and if the vultures will be turned into
mice.
Translation: Maria Alexe
Alis Niculică, Din istoria vieţii culturale a Bucovinei: Teatrul şi muzica (17751940), Cuvânt înainte: N. Georgescu, Casa Editorială „Floare Albastră”,
Bucureşti, 2009, 400 p.
O carte interesantă şi notabilă din cel puţin
câteva puncte de vedere, începând cu acela că, după
ştiinţa mea, este prima dată când un autor
analizează, în acest mod sistematic şi cuprinzător,
rolul formativ / educativ al teatrului şi muzicii în
Bucovina, şi avem în vedere preponderent românii
din această regiune (dar numai), dar şi istoria,
manifestarea propriu-zisă a celor două „laturi” ale
vieţii culturale.
Alis Niculică nu se abate de la linia bucovinenilor „de tradiţie”,
şi am în vedere formaţia lor serioasă, riguroasă, fapt vizibil şi în felul
cum valorifică bogatele surse biografice consultate. Şi face acest lucru
într-un mod plăcut cititorului, care poate răsfoi această „poveste” în mai
multe „acte” cu plăcere, atras de felul în care se ţese informaţia în
culoarea textului.
157
Structura cărţii: 1. Câteva consideraţii privind viaţa socială,
economică, religioasă şi culturală din Bucovina, în perioada 1775-1940,
II. Mişcarea teatrală în Bucovina până la Marea Unire, III. Arta
muzicală în Bucovina de la primele manifestări până la Marea unire, IV.
Viaţa teatrală şi muzicală în perioada interbelică şi rolul său în
consolidarea Unirii, şi, în final, Concluzii, Glosar, index de nume şi
anexe, cu un consistent material iconografic.
Să încheiem cu un citat despre Bucovina, numele unei părţi a
ţării noastre integrată regiunii istorice Moldova, astăzi trunchiată de
jocurile puterilor care au scris în felul lor istoria: „Austria, stat
multinaţional aflat în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVIII-lea în plin
proces de extindere a teritoriilor sale spre est şi sud […], obţinea de la
bolnavul Imperiu otoman, prin şantaj şi mituirea unor înalţi dregători
turci, prin presiuni politice şi militare, semnarea la 7 mai 1775, la
Istanbul, a convenţiei prin care i se recunoştea stăpânirea asupra părţii
de nord-vest a Moldovei”. Şi: „Potrivit unor date statistice […] în
momentul anexării”, din populaţia regiunii ocupate de Austria, „cca. 77,
35% erau români, 16,5% ruteni, restul – evrei, armeni, ţigani etc.”.
Dar, spune Alis Niculică, în pofida divergenţelor între români şi
celelalte naţionalităţi stabilite în zona Bucovinei după 1775, „aici s-au
creat puternice legături spirituale”. De acestea se ocupă cu precădere,
mergând pe segmentul istoriei vieţii culturale a Bucovinei care priveşte
teatrul şi muzica, autoarea acestei cărţi, acestui studiu monografic al
unui spaţiu multicultural cu locuri de o frumuseţe aparte. Şi are în
vedere contribuţiile tuturor naţionalităţilor care au conlocuit în acest colţ
de lume, într-un demers ştiinţific interesant şi documentat, întregit şi de
o secţiune de iconografie cu fotografii, portrete, afişe de epocă etc.
Marius Chelaru
Alis Niculică, From The History of Bucovina’s Cultural Life: The Theatre and
The Music (1775-1940), Foreword: N. Georgescu, Floare Albastră Publishing
House, Bucharest, 2009, 400 p.
An interesting and notable book from at least a few points of
view. I would begin with the fact that, from what I know, this is the first
time when an author analyses, in such a systematic and comprehensive
manner, the educational role of the theatre and music in Bukovina. We
are taking into account mainly the Romanians from this region, and not
158
only this aspect, but also the history, the proper manifestation of the two
aspects of the cultural life.
Alis Niculică does not digress from the traditional patterns set
by the writers from Bukovina, and I am referring to their serious and
strict training, a fact which is evidenced by the way the writer
capitalizes the abundant biographical sources which he had consulted.
She does this in a pleasant manner for the reader, who can browse
through this short-story with many acts, with delight, attracted by the
way the information is woven in the colour of the text.
The structure of the book: I.A few considerations on the social,
economical, religious and cultural life in Bukovina, during 1775-1940;
II. The theatrical movement in Bukovina before the Great Union; III.
The musical art in Bukovina from its first manifestations until the Great
Union; IV. The theatrical and musical life during the inter-war period
and its part in the consolidation of the Union and in the end,
Conclusions, A Glossary, a name index and appendices, with a dense
iconographical material.
Let’s end with a quotation about Bukovina, the name of a
certain part of our country, integrated in the historic region Moldavia,
nowadays chopped off by the games played by the world powers who
had written history in their own way: “Austria, a multinational state
which was in the second half of the XVIIIth century in a full process of
expanding its territories to the East and South […], obtained, out of
blackmailing and bribing some Turkish high officials as well as from
putting on political and military pressure, from the ill Ottoman Empire,
on the 7th May 1775, at Istanbul, the signing of a convention which
attested its domination over the North-Western part of Moldavia.” And:
“According to some statistics […] at the moment of the annexation”,
“approximately 77,35% of the population from that region were
Romanians, 16,5% were Ruthenians and the rest Jews, Armenians,
Gypsies etc.”
But, says Alis Niculică, in spite of all the divergences between
the Romanians and the other nationalities established in Bukovina after
1775, “here there had been created powerful spiritual bonds”. And these
bonds are the main concern of this book’s author, this monographic
study of a multicultural space, with places of a rare beauty, following
the historic segment of the cultural life, which encompasses the music
and the theatre, in Bukovina. She takes into account the contributions of
all the nationalities that cohabited in this part of the world, in an
159
interesting and documented scientific intercession, complemented also
by an iconographic section with antique photographs, portraits, posters
etc.
Translation: Anca Pegulescu
Bucovina în consemnări de epocă, antologie şi argument
de Doina Papuc şi Liviu Papuc, Editura Alfa, Iaşi, 2009,
240 p.
După alte două volume (Bucovina în
reportaje de epocă, 2000, şi Bucovina în scrieri de
epocă, 2005), apărute la editura ieşeană Alfa,
antologatorii, Doina şi Liviu Papuc oferă cititorilor,
sub sigla aceleiaşi edituri, o a treia carte volum
închinată unei regiuni de o frumuseţe deosebită a ţării noastre, rămasă
cu trupul ciunţit din secolul trecut.
Volumul, unul compozit (antologatorii, analizând, în Argument,
acest aspect, disting: pagini pur istorice care „nu s-au bucurat de
circulaţie largă”, pagini de reclamă turistică – relativ la realităţi „deja
trecute”, despre care azi se mai ştiu puţine –, pagini de evocare
culturală, istorică, socială „care reflectă anumite puncte de vedere
personale,uneori partinice”, care nuanţează „date generale deja
cunoscute”, pagini de exaltare literară,”în sensul cel mai bun al
cuvântului”, „adevărate imnuri închinate locurilor natale”).
Textele (extrase din publicaţii, mare parte, din publicaţii
periodice care sunt mai dificil de găsit/ consultat) sunt între „limitele
temporale” date de doi scriitori bucovineni, Iraclie Porumbescu, cu
Mănăstirea Putna – din Gazeta Transilvaniei, 1895) şi Nicolae TcaciucAlbu, Despărţirea – din vol. „Bucovina de Nord, 28 iunie 1940 – 28
iunie 1941), din care cităm: „Dar, ca din senin, ca un fulger distrugător,
a văzut lovitura zilei de 28 iunie 1940. Ţara care ni l-a dat istoricul
Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi, pe folcloristul Simion Florea Marian, pe
compozitorii Ciprian Porumbescu, Tudor Flondor şi Eusebie
Mandicevschi, pe pictorul Epaminonda Bucevschi, pe mitropolitul
Silvestru Morariu-Andrievici şi atâtea alte figuri ale căror nume fac
cinste culturii româneşti a fost ruptă în două, dându-se partea de nord
unui stat de care este cu totul străină, căci n-o leagă de el nici vreo
160
tradiţie istorică, nici vreo înrudire de sânge şi nici vreo aspiraţie politică,
sau un interes de altă natură.[…] Bucovina a pierdut jumătate din
teritoriul ei de aproximativ 10.000 km2 şi mai mult de jumătate dintr-o
populaţie de vreo 9000.000.”.
Sunt în antologie şi pagini semnate de Mihail Sadoveanu (Ţara
Fagilor), Artur Gorovei (Prin Solca spre mănăstirea Putnei), dar şi de
atâţia alţii al căror nume este. azi, mai rar pomenit: Iorgu G. Toma,
Dimitrie Dan, Valerian Doboş-Boca, T. Prodan, Milton Gh. Lehrer,
Petru Vieru-Unirea ş.a. pagini care povestesc despre locuri, oameni,
fapte cu parfum de amintire, de trecut.
Marius Chelaru
Bucovina As Seen in the Records of that Time, An Anthology and Argument
Written by Doina Papuc and Liviu Papuc, Alfa Publishing House, Iaşi, 2009,
240 p.
After two other volumes (Bukovina in the columns of that time,
2000 and Bukovina in that time’s writings, 2005), which issued at the
Alfa publishing House from Iaşi, these anthology writers, Doina and
Liviu Papuc offer to their readers, under the logo of the same publishing
house, a third book dedicated to a region of a rare beauty from our
country, but whose body is cut off from the past century.
The volume, a composite one (the authors, analyzing in The
Argument this aspect, distinguish: purely historic pages which did not
enjoy a wide circulation”, pages of advertising tourism – related to
“already faded” realities, of which we know nowadays only a few
things, pages of cultural, historical, social evocation “which reflect
certain personal points of view, sometimes biased points of view”,
which highlight “already known general data”, pages of literary
exaltation “in the best meaning of the word”, “true hymns dedicated to
their birth places”.
The texts (excerpts from publications, mainly periodical
publications which are more difficult to find) are between “the temporal
limits” given by two writers from Bukovina, Iraclie Porumbescu’s The
Putna Monastery – from Transylvania’s Gazette, 1895 and Nicolae
Tcaciuc-Albu’s The Breakup/Split/Parting- from the volume Northern
Bucovina, the 28th June 1940-the 28th June 1941, from which we cite:
161
“But, all of a sudden, like a destructing lightning, he saw the strike from
the 28th June 1940. The country who gave us the historic Eudoxiu
Hurmuzachi, the folklorist Simion Florea Marian, the composers
Ciprian Porumbescu, Tudor Flondor and Eusebie Mandicevschi, the
painter Epaminonda Bucevschi, the bishop Silvestru Morariu-Andievici
and many other figures whose names make proud the Romanian culture,
was split into two, the northern part being given to a state to which it is
completely alien, because no historic tradition bind them, neither a
blood kinship nor a political aspiration or an interest of any nature.[…]
Bukovina lost half of her territory of approximately 10.000 Km² and
more than half of a population of about 900.000 inhabitants”.
In this anthology there are also pages signed by Mihail
Sadoveanu (The Beech Country), Artur Gorovei (Through Solca
towards the Putna Monastery) but also many others whose name is
today rarely remembered: Iorgu G. Toma, Dimitrie Dan, Valerian
Dobos-Boca, T. Prodan, Milton Gh. Lehrer, Petru Vieru-Unirea and so
on, pages which tell stories about places, people, deeds bearing the
perfume of remembrance, of the past.
Translation: Anca Pegulescu
Theodor Damian – Semnul Isar
Volumul de poeme intitulat Semnul Isar, publicat de Theodor
Damian la Editura Paralela 45 în 2006, 108 pp., (postfaţă de Vasile
Andru), s-a retipărit de curând (pe finalul anului 2010), în trei valoroase
traduceri: o variantă în albaneză (Shenja e Isarit), editura Tipo Moldova,
2010, 120 pp., tradusă în albaneză de poetul Baki Ymeri, o a doua în
limba engleză, editată de PublishAmerica, Baltimore 2010, 111 pp., (în
traducerea autorului) şi o altă variantă în traducerea lui Muguraş Maria
Petrescu, Editura Călăuza v.b., 2011, 240 p.
Păstrând în mare parte formula în care a fost realizată editarea
volumului în varianta originală (din 2006), reeditările sunt însoţite de
referinţe critice capabile să ofere cititorului informaţii pertinente atât
asupra personalităţii autorului, cât şi asupra modului în care au fost
receptate creaţiile sale. Se oferă astfel o imagine suficient de clară a
situării lor în contextul dinamic şi atât de divers al literaturii române
162
contemporane. Între semnatarii respectivelor referinţe pot fi amintite
nume de certă rezonanţă în sfera comentatorilor români de poezie: N.
Manolescu, Aurel Sasu, Gabriel Stănescu, Doina Uricaru, Alex
Ştefănescu, etc.
În prezentarea volumului (intitulată Un poem testamentar),
Vasile Andru aduce în discuţie, printre altele, împrejurările cu totul
speciale în care a avut loc elaborarea acestei cărţi. Sunt amănunte de
viaţă care se mizează că vor reuşi să captiveze nu numai interesul
cititorului obişnuit, ci şi pe acela al viitorilor biografi cărora, probabil, le
vor fi astfel oferite suficiente şi tentante prilejuri de speculaţie. Desigur,
pentru autenticii iubitorii de poezie, anecdotica respectivă alunecă în
zonele de semnificaţie sensibil diminuată, de maximă atenţie şi
importanţă fiind – întâi de toate – substanţa lirică propriu-zisă care se
menţine deosebit de densă în ambele variante ale traducerilor.
Similar cu ceea ce se petrece în modalităţile de gândire ale
tuturor poeţilor autentici, pentru Th. Damian actul poetic devine unul
dintre acele tipuri de existenţă spirituală care dau consistenţă inefabilei
vibraţii din care se concretizează însăşi esenţa rarisimă a umanului. Poet
şi teolog, el îşi poartă neliniştile şi rănile inerente trecerii noastre prin
lume cu conştiinţa că „s-a dat un sens/ asta-i esenţialul/” (70), drept
pentru care, tot ceea ce i se pare mai important este să nu lase uitării
„rana cea mare a lumii”. Este ceea ce trimite cu gândul la timpul sărac,
cel evocat şi de Hölderlin (dürftig) pe care istoriile l-au aşezat peste
lume: timpul pustiit de Dumnezeu. Şi iată-l pe poet aproape scandând în
antice ritmuri: „Logosul, Logosul/ ce taină este aceasta/ slujba de seară
ni s-a dat nouă/ Lumină lină a sfintei slave” (29). Şi, conclusiv: „Noroc
că mai e cerul deasupra noastră/…/ ca un şarpe de aramă în pustie/
singurul loc în care asculţi până la capăt/ altfel suntem prea ocupaţi/
facem prea multe/ şi pe toate superficial/ …/ nu mai ascultăm de nimic
şi de /nimeni/…” (20).
Nevoia de puritate spirituală îl obsedează pe poetul din Semnul
Isar. În mod semnificativ, discursul său debutează cu o aserţiune
tulburătoare: „Întotdeauna trece o apă/ prin poezia noastră/ în
momentele mari/ Dresleuca, Manecadusa, Isar…/” (3). Insaţiabila sete
de expurgare merge până într-acolo încât ajunge să spună – şi să repete
– profund marcat de tentaţia ce apare mereu şi mereu: „Cred că trebuie
să îmi revizuiesc/ toate poemele/ şi să văd cum fac loc Isarului…/” (1).
Revine ulterior cu o altă – nu mai puţin stranie – precizare: „Cred că
trebuie să-mi revizuiesc/ toate poemele/ să văd cât Descartes încape/ în
163
ele/ să le plimb cu mine pe Isar/…” (11). Şi iarăşi: „Poeziile mele/ ca un
tunel al timpului/ trebuie să le mai curăţ din interior…/” (15). Apoi, din
nou: „Poemele mele,/ ca un tunel din Carpaţi/ trebuie să trec prin ele/
cu luminile aprinse/ (55). La fel se petrec lucrurile şi spre finalul
volumului: „Trebuie să-mi rescriu poemele/ s-ar putea să le scriu invers/
de la moarte le naştere/ atunci n-o să mai intereseze rima/ metafora şi
stilul/ o să mă intereseze pustia…/(84).
Dacă am spune că viziunea acestui poet este teologală, s-ar crea
impresia că vrem să-i mai comunicăm cititorului şi faptul – cât se poate
de real – că autorul este preot, că are două doctorate în teologie
(Bucureşti şi Fordham University, New York) şi un master (Princeton
Theological Seminary) şi că este profesor universitar. Desigur, aceste
informaţii sunt necesare. Ele întregesc imaginea personalităţii unui
creator de valoare. Dar – pentru a ne păstra în sfera celui mai autentic
mod de a vorbi şi a înţelege sensul profund al Poeticului – vom întreba:
care autentică poezie de la Homer şi Pindar, la Dante, Hölderlin şi Rilke
se deschide spre lume cu o altfel de viziune decât cea teologală?
Dan Anghelescu
Theodor Damian – The Isar Sign
The present volume of poetry entitled The Isar Sign, published by
Theodor Damian first at ”Paralela 45” Publishing House, 2006, 108 pp.,
with a postface written by Vasile Andru, has been recently republished
(by the end of 2010) in three other important translations: one variant
translated by the poet Baki Ymeri in the Albanian language (Shenja e
Isarit, ”Tipo Moldova” Publishing House, 2010, 120 pp.), a second
translation in English made by the author (The Isar Sign, published by
”PublishAmerica”, Baltimore 2010, 111 pp.) and a third variant, The
Isar Sign, a bilingual book Romanian – English, (”Călăuza v.b.”
Publishing House, 2011, 240 pp., with a foreword written by Vasile
Andru and a postface written by Muguraş Maria Petrescu).
Observing to a great extent the formula in which in 2006 the
original was written, the republications are accompanied by critical
references that can offer the reader relevant pieces of information both
on the author’s personality and on the way his creations have been
picked up. Thus, one can get a sufficiently clear outlook of their
164
arrangement in the so dynamic and diversified context of the
contemporary Romanian literature. Among the signers of these critical
references, one can mention names of an absolute resonance belonging
to the sphere of the Romanian expositors of poetry: N. Manolescu,
Aurel Sasu, Gabriel Stănescu, Doina Uricaru, Alex Ştefănescu, etc.
In the presentation of the volume (entitled A Testamentary
Poem), among other things, Vasile Andru brings into discussion the
peculiarities of the circumstances which led to the writing of this book.
There are life details that one can rely on to succeed in captivating not
only the ordinary reader’s interest, but also that of the future biographers
who, probably, will have at their disposal enough tempting occasions for
further speculations. Of course, for the authentic lovers of poetry and
being considerably diminished, its anecdotical part slips to other
significant areas, of a maximum attention and importance being – above
all – the lyrical substance that keeps up at a particularly high level in
either variants of translations.
Similar to what takes place in all authentic poets’way of
thinking, for Theodor Damian the poetic act becomes one of those types
of spiritual existence which gives a consistency to the ineffable
vibration out of which the very extremely rare essence of the human
gets a shape. A poet and a theologian, he carries his own anxieties and
wounds which are inherent in our passage in this world with a
conscience that ”you were given a sense/ that’s essential” (70) and,
consequently, he considers that what is most important, is not to forget
”the world’s big wound”. It is, what hints at the poor time, the one
evoked by Hölderlin (dürftig) and which histories had placed over the
world: it is the time that has been emptied by God. And there is the poet
almost scanning in antique rhythms: ”The Logos, the Logos/ what a
mystery this is/ the vesper service was entrusted to us/ Gracious Light of
the holy glory” (29). And, as a conclusion: ”Luckily that the sky still
exists above us/ ... / like a snake made of empty brass in the desert/ the
only place where you listen up to the end/ otherwise we are far too busy/
we do too much/ and everything superficially/ ... / we obey nothing/ and
nobody/...” (20).
In The Isar Sign the need of a spiritual purity torments the poet.
In a very significant way, his speech begins with a moving statement:
”in big moments/ there is always a river to flow/ through our poetry/ the
Dresleuca, the Menecadusa, the Isar.../” (3). The insatiable thirst for
expurgation goes to the point that he becomes to say – and repeat –
165
strongly marked by the temptation which keeps on appearing again and
again: ”I think I have to revise/ all my poems/ and see how to make
place for the Isar.../” (1). Then, there he comes back again with another
– no less stranger – clarification: ”I think I have to revise/ all my poems/
to see how much of Descartes/ they contain/ and float along with them
on the Isar/...” (11). And again: ”My poems/ like a tunnel of time/ I have
to clean them inside.../” (15). And then again: ”My poems/ like a tunnel
in the Carpathian Mountains/ through them I must cross/ with the lights
on” (55). The same happens at the end of the book: ”I have to rewrite
my poems/ I might write them the other way round/ from death to birth/
by then the rhyme/ the metaphor and the style/ will be of a no interest to
me/ I’ll be interested in the emptiness...” (84).
If we are to say that this poet’s vision is a theologal one, we
might have the impression that we intend to let the reader know the fact
– which is very real – that the author is a priest, that he has two Ph Ds in
theology (the former in Bucharest and the latter at the Fordham
University in New York) and a M.A. (Princeton Theological Seminary)
and that he is a University Professor. Of course, these pieces of
information are very necessary. They complete the image of a valuable
creator’s personality. But – in order to remain in the sphere of the most
authentic way of talking and in order to understand the deep meaning of
the Poetical – we shall ask: what authentic poem from Homer to Pindar,
to Dante, Hölderlin and Rilke opens to the world with such a vision than
the theologal one?
Translation: Muguraş Maria Petrescu
166
Revista Albanezul
Primul număr al revistei
bilingve, Albanezul, condus de
Nicolae Nacio, a apărut la
Bucureşti în urmă cu 123 de ani
(1888). A apărut până în 1903,
reînfiinţat în anul 1993 (serie
nouă), dar, din nefericire, acum
din ce în ce mai rar. Seria nouă a
fost condusă de Gelcu Maksutovici (până în 2001), de Luan Topciu
(până în 2005) şi de Baki Ymeri în prezent. Iniţial fusese o publicaţie
săptămânală, apoi lunară, iar actualmente periodic al Uniunii Culturale a
Albanezilor din România. Primul număr din acest an i se dedică
istoricului român de origine albaneză, Gelcu Maksutovici cu ocazia
împlinirii vârstei de 80 de ani..
Primele pagini sunt dedicate primirii noului ambasador al Albaniei,
Excelenţa Sa, Domnul Sami Shiba, cu ocazia prezentării scrisorilor de
acreditare către Preşedintele României.
Urmează apoi pagini de istorie din care aflăm, printre altele, că
singurul popor din lume înrudit cu românii pe linie daco-traco-ilirică
este poporul albanez şi că albanezii din România au o atestare
documentară de peste 400 de ani ca o Comunitate distinctă pe pământ
românesc, din vremea marelui voievod Mihai Viteazul. Acesta, în anul
1595, a îngăduit unui număr mare de albanezi să treacă Dunărea pentru
a se stabili în Ţara Românească. În anul 1995, sub egida Uniunii
Culturale a Albanezilor din România (UCAR), constituită la 24 mai
1990, în ospitalierele săli ale Muzeului Naţional de Istorie a României
din Bucureşti, s-au desfăşurat lucrările unui simpozion internaţional de
istorie şi literatură cu participarea unor cercetători din România,
Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia şi Republica Moldova
care au adus importante contribuţii la mai buna cunoaştere a etniei
albaneze.
În urma cu un an (24 mai 2010), în saloanele Ambasadei Republicii
Albania la Bucureşti, s-a sărbătorit aniversarea a 20 de ani de la
constituirea UCAR., continuatoare a organizaţiilor albanezilor din
această ţară, înfiinţate în a doua jumătate a secolului XIX la Bucureşti,
Constanţa şi Brăila, cu filiale în Ploieşti, Giurgiu, iar după 1918 şi în
Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu şi alte oraşe. Înainte şi după 1990, au fost
167
reprezentanţi de seamă la Constanţa, Slatina, Piatra-Neamţ, Craiova,
precum şi în alte localităţi mai mici. Din anul 2000, fără niciun fel de
subvenţii materiale de la autorităţile de stat din România sau Albania, în
situaţia în care numărul etnicilor albanezi a fost în continuă scădere, iar
comunitatea în destrămare aproape pe cale de dispariţie din peisajul
populaţiei minoritare a României actuale, vechile familii care mai
păstrează tradiţiile Comunităţii Albaneze din România, cu posibilităţi
materiale modeste, încearcă să le perpetueze prin intermediul ziarului
Albanezul (Shqiptari). La aceasta contribuie în mare măsură, prin
întreaga sa activitate, scriitorul şi traducătorul Baki Ymeri.
Actualmente revista apare în format de carte, fiind dinamizată de
numeroase poze şi documente color. În revistă contribuie cu recenzii,
printre alţii, Luan Topciu, Florentin Popescu, Fatbardha Demi, etc.
Florentin Popescu, de exemplu, subliniază într-un articol că despre
„acest dăruit cu har de Dumnezeu (care este Baki Ymeri) am avut în mai
multe rânduri ocazia să scriu. Şi de fiecare dată am făcut-o cu
convingerea că acest poet şi totodată traducător - din română în albaneză
şi invers - realizează în plan cultural, la ora actuală de unul singur,
aproape cât un întreg institut. Nu cunosc alt caz de scriitor care să facă
un astfel de uriaş voluntariat artistic numai şi numai din iubirea pentru
cuvântul scris, pentru literatură şi pentru scriitori. Cine se va osteni să
întocmească istoria culturală a acestor ultimi zece-cincisprezece ani din
România şi din Kosovo va avea surpriza să descopere nenumărate
acţiuni ale acestui coleg al nostru: îngrijirea şi traducerea unor antologii
de poezie, organizare de întâlniri ale scriitorilor din cele două entităţi
spirituale, lansări de volume ale kosovarilor la Bucureşti etc.”
Toate aceste activităţi, ca şi multe altele, cititorul român, ca şi cel
albanez, le poate afla citind revista Albanezul
Dan Anghelescu
The Albanian Magazine
The first issue of the bilingual magazine The Albanian, led by
Nicolae Nacio, appeared in Bucharest, in 1888, 123 years ago. It kept on
being issued until 1903, then its new series was published again in 1993,
but unfortunately, nowadays it appears every now and then. The new
series was led by Gelu Maksutovici (until 2001), by Luan Topciu (until
2005) and by Baki Ymeri (up till now). At the beginning it was a
168
weekly publication, then a monthly one and now it is the periodical
magazine of The Cultural Union of the Albanians in Romania. The first
issue of this year is dedicated to the Romanian historian of an Albanian
origin, Gelu Maksutovici on his 80th birthday.
The first pages present the welcoming of the new Ambassador of
Albania, His Excellency, Mr. Sami Shiba, on the occasion of the
presentation of his credentials to the President of Romania.
Then, there follow pages of history out of which we find out, among
other things, that the only people in this world related to Romanians on
a Daco-Traco-Illyric line is the Albanian people and that the Albanians
in Romania have a documentary attestation of more than 400 years, like
a distinct community on the Romanian land, since the great Voivode
Michael the Brave. In 1595, this one allowed a great number of
Albanians to cross the Danube River in order to settle themselves in
Wallachia. In 1995, under the aegis of The Cultural Union of the
Albanians in Romania (CUAR), founded on the 24th of May, 1995, in
the hospitable rooms of the Romanian National Museum of History in
Bucharest, there took place the works of an international symposium of
history and literature with the participation of research workers from
Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and the
Republic of Moldavia who brought important contributions to a better
knowledge of the Albanian ethnos.
One year ago (on the 24th of May, 2010), in the halls of the Embassy
of the Republic of Albania in Bucharest, there took place the celebration
of the 20th anniversary from the foundation of the CUAR, a continuer
of the Albanians’ organizations in this country, organizations that were
founded in the second half of the 19th century in Bucharest, Constantza
and Braila and with branches in Ploiesti, Giurgiu and, after 1918 also in
Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and other cities. Before and after 1990, there were
remarkable representatives in Constantza, Slatina, Piatra-Neamt,
Craiova as well as in other small places. As from 2000, without having
any material subsidies from the Romanian or Albanian State and in the
situation in which the number of the Albanians has been in a continous
diminuation and the dissolving community almost on the way of
disappearance, this minor population of the present Romania, the old
families that keep the traditions of the Albanian Community in this
country, with modest material possibilities, try to perpetuate them
through The Albanian magazine (Shqiptari). To all this a major
contribution is brought by the writer and translator Baki Ymeri.
169
Today the magazine is published under the form of a book, being
stimulated by a great number of coloured photos and documents.
Among others who bring their contributions with book reviews are:
Luan Topciu, Florentin Popescu, Fatbardha Demi etc.
Florentin Popescu, for instance, underlines in one of his articles that
about ”this man endowed by God with a gift (and who is Baki Ymeri), I
wrote on several occasions. And every time I did this, I did it with the
conviction that this poet and translator at the same time – from
Romanian to the Albanian language and vice versa – achieves on a
cultural level, now and all by himself, almost the work done by a whole
institute. I really do not know any other writer who is able to do such a
huge artistic voluntariate only and only for the love of the written word,
for literature and writers. He who will endeavour to write the cultural
history of these ten or fifteen years in Romania and Kosovo, will have
the surprise to discover countless actions of this colleague of ours: the
looking after and the translation of certain anthologies of poetry,
organization of meetings for the writers in the two cultural entities, book
signings of the Kosovarians in Bucharest and others.”
All these activities as well as many others, the Romanian and the
Albanian readers will discover while reading The Albanian magazine.
Translation: Muguras Maria Petrescu
170
Notes on Contributors
Bardhyl Londo (ALBANIA), born in 1948 in Lipa, near Përmet, built up a
reputation as a leading Albanian poet in the eighties. He studied language and
literature at the University of Tirana, taught for some years in his native district
and later worked for the literary journal Drita. He also served as president of
the Albanian Union of Writers and Artists until February 1998. He is the author
of eight poetry collections from 1975 to 1996. His poetry is written in standard
meters and is mostly rhymed, melodiously echoing the rich traditions of Tosk
verse. In 1989, he was awarded the Migjeni prize.
Luan R. Topciu (ALBANIA) was born on Feb. 22, 1962 in Pogradec
(Albania). He is a university Professor, a literary critic, translator, and diplomat
(Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Albania in Bucharest). He graduated from
the Faculty of Philology, Languages & Literatures with a concentration in
Albanian and he has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature Studies (magna cum
laude). Main Publications: Textualism and style, Bucharest, 2001; Dimensions
of Modern Albanian Literature, Skopje (Macedonia); Albanian-Romanian
Dictionary (coauthor), Bucharest, 2003; Paradigms Longing in Romanian and
Albanian poetry, Bucharest, 2004; Nostalgic loneliness in poetry, Tirana, 2005;
Mirrors literary/ Pasqyra letrare, Bucharest, 2007; A anthology of Albanian
poetry, Bucharest, 2007. Topciu also translated many books from Romanian
into Albanian and vice versa.
Visar Zhiti (ALBANIA) was born in1952 in the Adriatic port city of
Durrës, Albania. After his studies at a teacher training college in Shkodra, he
began his teaching career in the northern mountain town of Kukës,
demonstrating an early interest in verse, with a few poems published in literary
magazines. In 1973, as he prepared a collection, Rapsodia e jetës së trëdafilave
(Rhapsody in the life of roses) for publication, the so-called Purge of the
Liberals broke out in Tirana at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Communist
Party. He was arrested in 1979 in Kukës and forced into solitary confinement.
Pen and paper were forbidden. In order to maintain his sanity, he composed and
memorized over one hundred poems. Sentenced at a mock trail in April 1980 to
thirteen years in prison, he was taken to Tirana jail and later transferred to a
concentration camp in the isolated northern mountains that was similar to the
Soviet gulags. Many of his fellow prisoners died of mistreatment and
malnutrition or went mad. He was released from prison in early 1987 and
“permitted” by the Party to work in a brick factory in Lushnja. In 1991, he
managed to get to Italy and worked in Milan until 1992. Through a scholarship
provided by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Zhiti visted Germany in 1993 and
went to the United States the following year. Upon his return to Albania, we
171
worked as a journalist and was appointed head of the publishing company
which had planned to print his first book. This volume Kujtesa e ajrit (The
memory of the air) was published in Tirana in 1993, and included several
prison poems. Hedh një kafkë te këmbët tuaja (I cast a skull at your feet) was
published the following year. This volume contained all 100 poems composed
in prison between 1979 and 1987, which had survived only in his memory.
Numerous volumes followed, and he is now recognized as one of the major
Albanian poets of the 20th century. He has also written numerous short stories,
collected in two volumes, and translated works by Garcia Lorca and the Italian
poet Mario Luzi into Albanian. His prison memoirs, Rrugët e ferrit: burgologji
(The roads to hell: prisonology) was published in Tirana in 2001. In 1991 he
was awarded the Italian “Leopardi d’oro” prize for poetry and in 1997 he
received the prestigious “Ada Negri” prize. A volume, The Condemned Apple:
Selected Poetry, was translated by Robert Elsie and published in Los Angeles,
Green Integer, in 2005.
Thede Kahl (AUSTRIA) is a researcher at the Austrian Academy of
Sciences in Vienna. He studied geography, Slavic philology, byzantinology,
Greek philology, classical philology, and Russian. In 1999 he got his PhD
(summa cum laude) in geography. Thede Kahl is the Secretary of the
International Committee of Slavic Studies and member in the Commission of
Balcanology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft
SOG, München, in the International Council for Traditional Music ICTM, New
York, and of the editorial board of Österreichische Osthefte, Atlas of Eastern
and South-eastern Europe, Revista Istorica, Philologica Jassyensia. Starting
with 1999, he participated in funded research projects such as the German
Science Foundation: Selbstidentifikation meglenitischer Vlachen, EthnoDoc /
Forost: Bibliographical Data on minorities in SE Europe, DanubePortal – An
internet portal for the co-operation in the Danube Region (head of project),
Interethnical relations of Christians and Muslims in SE Europa (project
coordinator, at the University of Münster, Oral History from Andon Poci /
Southern Albania (head of project), Dynamic of Cultural Contacts (head of
project).
Georgi Angelov (BULGARIA) was born in 1968. He studied history at the
“St Cyril and St Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria). He is the
author of several books of poetry and of some unpublished collections of
poems. He is working on a diary entitled Holy wanderers. His poetry has
appeared in a variety of periodicals, anthologies and literary miscellanies. His
poems have been translated into Turkish, Serbian and English. Angelov has
received several national awards for poetry and he is a member of the Bulgarian
Writers’ Union and editor-in chief of the e-magazine Literary World.
172
Ljudmila Hristova (BULGARIA) was born in August 26, 1963 in the city
of Sofia. Ever since 1991 she has worked as a lawyer in College of barristers,
specializing in civil law. She started writing haiku in 2000. Some of her poems
have been published inliterary journals and in the anthology The Rose and The
Road, edited by the Bulgarian haiku club, as well as in the anthology Mirrors.
She won an award in the haiku competition Shadows and Lights, organized in
the end of 2003 by the publishing house “LCR”, and received first prize in the
national haiku competition The Old Pond in 2004. She won a prize in the SMSpoetry contest (2006 and 2007), and in the contest “Melnishki vecheri na
poeziata” (“Poetic nights of the town of Melnik”) – 2007 and 2008. She is a
third prize winner in Haiku Contest 2008, organized by Sofia Haiku Club and
the South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, and also won two second prizes in
the same contest in 2009 and 2010. She is an author of two books of haiku
poetry: Drops of Light (2005) and No Bound (2008). She is a secretary of the
Bulgarian haiku club and member of the World Haiku Association.
Zdravko Kissiov (BULGARIA) is a poet, translator, and essayist. He was
born in 1937. He has worked as an editor and journalist in the city of Rousse.
Zdravko Kissiov is the author of 20 poetry books, which include: Revelation
(1962), Soliloquies (1966), The Balladic Hour (1974), Innerscape (1976),
Needed Pain (1978), Residence (1982), Eyesight (1984), A Distinctive Mark
(1985), Cryptogram (1987), Breath (1987), Evidences (1990), Daily Crucifix
(1995), Canon (2002), Heavenly Voice (2002), Reversed Time (2007) and travel
notes about Latvia – Between Salt and Fresh Water (1977), and others. His
poems have been translated into 19 languages. Zdravko Kissiov is an active
translator, mainly of poets from Poland and the Baltic countries. He is a
member of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union. He has been awarded many prizes,
such as “Honoured Worker For Polish Culture”.
Krasimir Simeonov (BULGARIA) was born in 1967 in Varna. He is a
Bulgarian Philology graduate from Konstantin Preslavsky University of
Shumen. His poems are published in students’ and national press. He is an
author of the books of poetry: Kinds (2003), A skin (2004), Laky eyes (2005), I
stood and listened (old and new things) (2006) and Nothing more (2008). His
works are translated into Russian, English, Polish, Greek, French, Serbian,
Slovene and Turkish.
Ionuţ Caragea (CANADA, ROMANIA) (b. April 12, 1975, Constanţa), is
a Romanian writer living in Montréal, Canada, since 2003. He is poet, science
fiction novelist and quotes author. He is a member in Union of Writers of
Romania, co-founder and vice-president of Québec Romanian Writers'
Association. In one well known essay he was named as ''The poet born on
Google''. His other pen-name is ''Snowdon King''. In 2009 he had an extended
173
interview on ''Virtual literature and the Google generation trend'' with the
participation of many well known authors, prose and poetry writers, literary
critics. In this interview Ionuţ Caragea brings forth a new vision on the ''literary
trend of the Google generation''.
Boris Nazansky (CROATIA), graduated as an Engineer of Chemistry. He
is also a writer and journalist, professionally engaged in enigmatics, and is an
editor-in-chief of the puzzle magazine Kvizorama. He published over ten
thousand riddles and puzzles. Nazansky has been writing haiku for more than
20 years in Croatian, English, and the Kajkavian dialect, and his haiku have
been published in at least a dozen languages. He is an editor of the haiku
magazine IRIS, a member of the editorial board of the Slovenian haiku
magazine Letni časi (Seasons), and co-editor of Haiku-zbornik (Haiku
Miscellany; Ludbreg 2001-2006) and Haiku Calendar (Ludbreg, 2001-2009).
For his haiku he received over fifty awards and prizes, in Croatia and abroad.
Stjepan Rožić (CROATIA), now a retired electrician, is an amateur
musician playing several instruments, and is among the founders of the Haiku
Association Three Rivers, Ivanić Grad, Croatia, and of the International Kloštar
Ivanić Haiku meetings. He writes in Croatian and the Kajkavian dialect,
publishes in haiku magazines, and has received a number of awards in Croatia
and Japan. So far he published two independent haiku collection in Croatian
and English: Spring Wind (2005) and Song of a Nightingale (2010). Also, he is
among seven authors in joint haiku collection Seven Windows, Ivanic Grad
(2002) and Seven New Ways, Zagreb (2003). In 2002 his haiku has been
published in an joint collections of INA, Zagreb.
Đurđa Vukelić-Rožić (CROATIA) was born on April 6, 1956. She has
been writing haiku since 1990, in Croatian, Kajkavian dialect and in English.
She is a translator and was the editor of magazine HAIKU (Zagreb) and now
IRIS (Ivanić Grad) and annual Kloštar Ivanić Joint Collection since 2003, all in
Croatian and English. She is the founder and secretary of Haiku association
'Three rivers' Ivanić Grad, Croatia and a member of World Haiku Association.
Her haiku have been published in the shared bilingual haiku collection Seven
Windows, Ivanic Grad (2002) and her collection of haiku Chasing the Clouds.
She also writes poetry, stories and humoresques and has published four books
so far.
Apostolos Patelakis (GREECE) was born in Craiova, Romania, in 1951,
in a family of Greek political immigrants. After graduating from high school he
attended the courses of the Institute of History – Geography in Craiova (1973).
He attended the courses of the Faculty of History – Philosophy in Cluj –
Napoca (1976). In 1979 he officially returned to Greece, together with his
174
family. Since 1980 he has been teaching a course of Romanian language,
culture and civilisation at the Balkan Languages School within the Institute of
Balkan Studies in Thessaloniki. Between 2000 and 2006 he was a lecturer at
the Faculty of Balkan Studies within the Macedonia University of Thessaloniki
where he taught a course in the Romanian language, culture and civilisation. He
translated several works from Greek into Romanian, including Manolis
Andronicos, Royal Tombs in Vergina, An Anthology of Balkan Poetry, Foreign
Investments in Romania. In 1992 he published the brochure Thessaloniki, the
Capital of Modern Macedonia and the Cultural Capital of Europe in 1997, he
was co-author of The Bibliography of the City of Thessaloniki (1987),
Supplimentary Texts in Acquiring the Romanian Language (2002). He worked
also as a correspondent in Greece for the Romanian newspapers Adevărul
(1994-1995), Vocea României (1995-1996), Actualitatea românească (20022006), Curierul Atenei (2007-2008).
Katika (Kata) Kulavkova (MACEDONIA) was born in 1951. She is a
member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a poet, theoretician
of literature, literary essayist, and Professor of the Theory of Literature and
Literary Hermeneutics at the Department of General and Comparative
Literature in the Faculty of Philology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University,
Skopje. Her poetry has been translated into many languages and represented in
books, anthologies and selections of contemporary Macedonian poetry. She is
the Editor-in-Chief of the international P.E.N. e-Collection Diversity
(www.diversity.org.mk). Areas of interest include: theory of intertextuality,
literary poetics and hermeneutics, cultural theory, and Balkan identities. Her
publications include about 20 volumes of poetry in Macedonian, French,
English, Romanian, Serbian, and several books of literary theory and
hermeneutics: Figurative Speech and Macedonian Poetry, Pact and Impact,
Stone of Temptation, Cahiers, Small Literary Theory, Theory of Literature,
introduction (2004, in English), Hermeneutics of Identities. She has also been
the editor of several anthologies of Macedonian short stories and essays, and
several readers (Dialogue of Interpretations, Theory of Intertextuality, Poetics
and Hermeneutics, Balkan Image of the World, Interpretations Vol. 1 on
Violence & Art, Notions of Literary Theory). She also prepared two anthologies
of world short stories (1996, 2008). Personal website: www.kulavkova.org.mk
Baki Ymeri (MACEDONIA & ROMANIA) is a poet, translator, essayist
and publicist. He was born in Sipkovita (Macedonia) to an Albanian father and
a Romanian mother. Baki Ymeri graduated from The Faculty of Philosophy
(Albanian Language and Literature) at the University of Kosovo, Prishtina, and
then specialized in Romanian language in Bucharest and Vienna. He is a
member of the Romanian Union of Writers, editor in chief of the
Albanezul/Shqiptari magazine, an author of many articles about the Romanians
175
in Valea Timocului (Serbia) and the Albanians in Kosovo. He also published
Romania-Albanian poetry editions in Bucharest, 1994) and Macedonian
editions in Tetova, R. Macedonia. For his rich cultural activity, Baki Ymeri was
nominated as the Man of 2001 by the ABI (American Biographic Institute). He
also translated numerous verses from books by over 50 Romanian writers and
historians into Albanian, Macedonian and Slovenian, as well as volumes by
Nichita Stanescu, Anghel Dumbrăveanu; Slavco Almăjan, Marin Sorescu and
many others.
Maria Şleahtiţchi (REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA) was born on January
17, 1960 in Ştefăneşti, Moldova. She graduated from the University „Alecu
Russo” of Balti, Faculty of Philology, Section of Romanian Language and
Literature (1981). She is a Doctor in Philology (1991), and co-founder and
assistant chief editor of the literary magazine Semn/ Sign (1995). Beginning
with the year 2000 she is the Dean of the Faculty of Philology at the University
of Balti. She debuted with prose (Nume de legendă) in Tinerimea Moldovei
(1976). Published the volumes: O săptămînă de poeme nescrise. Poems (1998),
Cvartet pentru o voce şi toate cuvintele (dramatic essay, written in
collaboration with N. Leahu - 2001), Jocurile alterităţii (literary criticism2002), Cerc deschis. Literatura română din Basarabia în postcomunism
(literary criticism - 2007). She is co-author of Istoria critică a literaturii
române din Basarabia: pe genuri (2004) and anthologist of Literatura din
Basarabia în secolul XX. Literatură pentru copii (2004).
She is a member of unions of creation (Republic of Moldova, Romania,
PEN Club) and she holds several literary awards. Her poetry has been
translated into English, French, Hungarian, Russian and Slovenian.
Mihaela Albu (ROMANIA, email address: [email protected])
teaches Romanian literature at the University Spiru Haret in Bucharest. She
studied Philology at the University of Bucharest. Between 1999 and 2004 she
was visiting professor at Columbia University in New York. She is a member
of the Union of Romanian Writers, of the Union of Professional Journalists in
Romania, and of the Romanian-American Academy. She is also the editor-in
chief of the literary magazine Lumina lina. Gracious Light (USA), and a
member in the editorial board of several newspapers and magazines. She
published essays (literary criticism) and poems both in Romanian and foreign
magazines (from the United States, Germany, Italy, Israel, Moldova, Canada)
and is the author of three volumes of poetry (Intre doua porti, Ca o dragoste
tarzie, Catharsis) and of several books about the Romanian literary exile Presa
literară din exil. Recuperare şi valorificare critică I (2009), Revistele literare
ale exilului românesc. Luceafărul. Paris – o restituiré,2009 (co-authored),
176
Memoria exilului românesc: ziarul Lumea liberă din New York, 2008, Cultură
şi identitate, 2008.
.
Maria Alexe (ROMANIA) lives in Bucharest She is an English lecturer at
National University of Arts and UTCB, where she teaches ESP, Cultural
Studies and Cultural Communication. She is a member of Romanian
Association for American Studies (RAAS), ENEIDA (European Network of
Intercultural Education Activities and UNESCO Club Romania, a cultural
association for promoting Romanian cultural values. She wrote a PhD thesis on
Balkan literature - Balkan Postmodern Novel Identity, and more than 50
scientific articles on literature, cultural studies and didactic subjects. Maria
Alexe's aria of interest includes postmodern Balkan literature, foreign language
teaching methodology. She wrote a book on written communication and
prepares a book on Men of Science and their representation in public spaces.
Dan
Anghelescu
(ROMANIA,
email
address:
[email protected]) was born in Romania in May 1945 and he is
a poet and essayist. Anghelescu is a member of the Union of Romanian
Writers, of the Union of Professional Journalists from Romania, and editor of
the literary magazine Lumina lina. Gracious Light, New York. He graduated
from the Academy of Music “George Enescu” in Iasi, Musicology and
Composition Department. Since his debut in 1969 in the magazine Iaşul literar,
Dan Anghelescu has had a rich and diverse activity, signing musical chronicles,
interviews, book-reviews, poems and essays in many Romanian magazines. His
debut was in 1970 with a book of poetry - Cerul în apă. This and the other
volumes had very good chronicles signed by important Romanian literary
critics. In 1990, together with a playwright, Dinu Grigorescu, and a director,
Tudor Marascu, he founded the first private theater in Romania and printed the
magazine Scorpion. In 1999 he edited (together with other two poets) –
working as an editor in chief – the magazine Axa. In 2007, in Braila, he was coinitiator of the International Poetry Festival „Balcanica”, and also president of
the first edition.
Paul Aretzu (ROMANIA) was born in May 29, 1949 in Caracal, Romania.
In 1973 he got his B.A. in Romanian and French languages at the University of
Craiova. He has published several books of poetry (The Sound Shell, 1996,
Blind in Paradise, 1999, The Blood Tuner, 2000, The Book of Psalms (Signs of
Love), 2003, Uriel’s Trace, 2006); books of literary criticism (Critical Visions,
2005, The Staircase in the Library, 2007) and essays and books reviews in
several Romanian magazines such as Ramuri, Luceafărul, Euphorion, Calende,
Contemporanul, Viaţa Românească, Apostrof, Vatra, Mozaic, etc. Aretzu was
awarded many prizes, including the Excellency Prize of the Craiova Branch of
177
the Romanian Writers’ Union (2007). Aretzu is a member of the Council of the
Romanian Writers’ Union.
Marius Chelaru (ROMANIA) (name: Marius Chelariu, Pen Name:
Marius Chelaru), email address: [email protected], was born in
Negreşti, Vaslui county, Romania, on August 30, 1961; He graduated from The
Faculty of Economics and he has been editor of several cultural magazines and
Publishing Houses. Chelaru contributed with articles, poems, essays, literary
criticism, prose, translations, interviews, and book-reviews in various
international anthologies, and magazines/ journals from Romania, Republic of
Moldavia, USA, England, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Paraguay, Japan, Iraq,
Egypt, Jordan, Vietnam, Lebanon, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Holland etc.
He is a member of The Romanian Writers’ Society, the Constanta Haiku
Society, the Haiku Romanian Society, the World Haiku Association, Japan, an
honorary member of Maison Naaman pour la Culture, Beirut, Lebanon; of the
Romanian Language Writers’ from Québec, Canada, and secretary of the
Association of Magazines and Publications in Europe. He published over 30
books (novels, poems – haiku and tanka –, literary critique, essays, and
translations). He was awarded some national prizes (including the Romanian
Union Writers’ Prize for essay in 2005).
Ioana-Rucsandra Dascalu (ROMANIA) was born in Medgidia, Constanta
County, Romania in 1979, in a family of intellectuals. She graduated from an
English bilingual high-school in Craiova, and from the University of Bucharest
(BA Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, in 2002 and MA Faculty of
Letters, in 2003). During her formative years she was awarded several national
prizes and also participated in international competitions (Italy). She received
her PhD in Philology in 2009 with a thesis on Latin lyrical poetry. She is the
author of several books: translations from ancient literatures: Plinius, Naturalis
Historia, XXth book, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2003, Plinius, Naturalis
Historia, XXXIst book, Iaşi, Polirom Publishing House, 2004, monographies
Limbajul erotic al comediilor în Roma antică, Craiova, 2007, Procedee ale
intertextualităţii în canonul antic şi modern, Craiova, 2008, and of dozens of
studies and articles on humanistic themes. She leads a very prolific didactic
activity at the University of Craiova, Romania, where she teaches classical
languages and literatures.
Iolanda Manescu (ROMANIA) was born in Craiova, Romania, and
studied at the Universities of Bucharest and of Craiova. She teaches at the
University of Craiova’s Department of Applied Foreign Languages, and is a
literary consultant at the National Theatre of Craiova, being also involved in the
Romanian International Shakespeare Festival. She is a member of the
Romanian theatre association, UNITER. She has published articles and
178
translations in different Romanian and foreign journals, annals and magazines
such as: Lo Straniero, Ultimate Reality and Meaning (Interdisciplinary Studies
in the Philosophy of Understanding), Teatrul azi, Scrisul Romanesc,
Proceedings of the Romanian Academy etc., and books: The Ancient GreekLatin Theatre in Romanian Performances of the Last Decades of the 20th
Century (her PhD thesis held at the National University of Theatre and Film in
Bucharest), and translated into Romanian, Is It True What They Say about
Shakespeare? by Stanley Wells.
Alexandru Flora Munteanu (ROMANIA) was born in Deva, Romania.
He studied Philology at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. He was a
participant and organizer of the International Haiku festivals (1992, 1994, 2005,
2007, 2009) and National Haiku Colloquiums (1996-2009). Beginning with
2002, Munteanu is literary secretary of The Haiku Society and Albatros
magazine. His poems were translated in the haiku magazines Albatros (11), and
he published individual books (15), bilingual anthologies (4), personal booksessays, communications, haiku, tanka, and haibun (3). He was also published
and mentioned in different national and international profile reviews and
books.
Mircea Muthu (ROMANIA) was born in Iernut, Mures in 1944 and
graduated from “Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca where he has been
teaching as full professor. Professor Mircea Muthu’s fields of specialization are
studies of Balkanology and of Southeastern Europe (a field in which he has
published the greater part of his books and studies), general and literary
esthetics, and Theory of literature. He published 20 volumes as a single author
and 17 books written in collaboration, in Romania and in other countries
(France, Spain, Germany, Italy). M. Muthu is also co-author of Scriitori
români. Mic dicţionar (Romanian Writers - a Small Dictionary), 1978;
Dicţionarul scriitorilor români (The Dictionary of Romanian Writers) : tome I
(A-C), 1995; tome I (D-L), 1998; tome III (M-Q), 2000; Dicţionar analitic de
opere literare româneşti (Analytical Dictionary of Romanian Literary Works),
tome I (A-D), 1998; tome H (E-L), 1999; tome m (M-P) 2000; Dicţionar
Esenţial al Scriitorilor Români (Essential Dictionary of Romanian Writers),
2001. He published about 800 studies and articles in the main Romanian
cultural magazines as well as in magazines in France, Southern Africa, Greece
and Austria. He is a member of the Romanian Writers’ Union (since 1980); Les
amis de Jules Romains » Association, France (since 1978), and The
International Comparative Literature Association (AILC). He is a Knight of
the National Order Pentru Merit (2000); Knight of the Ordre des Palmes
Academiques for services rendered to French culture (2001).
179
Anca-Mariana PEGULESCU (ROMANIA) graduated ‘Al. I. Cuza’
University from Iaşi and had her PhD in contrastive linguistics at the University
of Bucharest. She was a visiting fellow at the University of Southampton in
2007 and entered the programme of the International Visiting Leadership in
USA in 2008. She has administrative responsibilities as a general inspector for
English, Japanese and Chinese in the Romanian Ministry of Education,
Research, Youth and Sports, focusing on teaching assessment, monitoring and
training. As an associate lecturer of the University of Craiova, Drobeta TurnuSeverin branch, she taught English grammar, semantics and pragmatics. She
published books on transitivity, phonetics and lexicology as well as on
language communication (La transitivite et ses incidences contrastives, Scrisul
Românesc, Craiova, 2005, What Should a Hearer and a Listener Do,
Universitaria, Craiova, 2007, Why Do People Need Communication,
Universitaria, 2007). She has issued articles on proverbs, having contributed to
PROBERBIUM, edited by Professor Wolfgang Mieder, University of Vermont,
Ohio and on translation studies.
Muguras Maria PETRESCU (ROMANIA), e-mail address:
[email protected], is a translator, an essayist and a publicist. She
was born in 1957. She graduated from the University of Iassy (Foreign
Languages, English and French) and is the editor-in-chief of the Noua
Provincia Corvina literary magazine in Hunedoara, editor of the Carmina
Balkanica, in Bucharest and editor of DeNarratione literary magazine in Iassy.
While being a student at the University she was an editor for the translations
department with The Students’ Opinion and The Dialogue magazines. She
made a lot of translations: Cezar Ivanescu - Rod / Seed Time and Harvest, 2007
(in English); George Stanca -Angel Radios / Beaming Angel, 2008 (in English);
Petre Tanasoaica - Gradina lui Tagore / Tagore’s Garden, 2008 (India) (in
English); Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist, 2009 (in Romanian), Munir Mezyed
- Chapter from the Poetry Bible / Capitol din Biblia Poeziei / Chapitre de la
Bible de la Poésie ( in Romanian and French), 2010; George Stanca - Angel
Radios / Ange Radieux, 2010 (in French); Eugen Evu - A Doua Venire / The
Second Coming, 2010 (a groupage of poems translated in English); Theodor
Damian - Semnul Isar / The Isar Sign, 2011 (in English); Ioan N. Rosca Amfore de lumina / Enlightened Amphoras (in English), 2011. She ALSO
translated poems and wrote many essays and book-reviews in various literary
magazines such as: Gracious Light (USA), Pheonix Mission Arizona (USA),
Agero (Germany), Armonia (USA), Dacia Literara, Convorbiri Literare,
Poezia Tomis, Oglinda Literara (Romania).
Aloisia Sorop (ROMANIA) was born in Craiova where she attended High
School no.3 where all courses were taught in French. In 1980 she graduated
from The Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of
180
Bucharest, specializing in English major, Japanese minor. Since 1993 she has
been working as a Senior lecturer in English literature at the Faculty of Letters,
University of Craiova, where she currently teaches the long 18th century,
postcolonial literature and contemporary British and American literature. Her
research interests also include issues connected to Romanian national identity
and its reflection in Romanian literature. Holder of a Ph.D. in comparative
literature, she is the author of a number of 30 articles pertaining to her research
and teaching domains. She attended several national and international
conferences and published articles in the respective volumes of the
proceedings.
Răzvan Theodorescu (ROMANIA) was born in Bucharest into a family of
intellectuals, and studied History at the University of Bucharest. He studied
also in France in 1968 and received a doctorate in history from the University
of Bucharest in 1972. From 1963 to 1987, he was a researcher at the Romanian
Academy's Institute of Art History, serving as adjunct research director from
1972 to 1977. From 1987 to 1990 he was an associated professor at the
Bucharest National University of Arts, where he became a professor in 1990,
teaching courses on the history of old Romanian art, the typology of Eastern
Christian art and on the history of European civilization. He has held additional
posts in his field, including within UNESCO.
In 1993, Theodorescu became a correspondent member of the Romanian
Academy, rising to titular member in 2000. In 1990 he became a correspondent
member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, and since 1998 belongs to the
New York Academy of Sciences. He has received the chevalier (1997) and
commandeur (2003) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and since 2000 is a
great officer of the Romanian National Order for Merit. He has received a
number of other academic distinctions and memberships, as well as prizes and
decorations, both at home and abroad.
Theodorescu has published over 600 journal articles and over 25 books on
Romanian and European history and art. Among his books: Mănăstirea
Dragomirna (1965) , Mănăstirea Bistriţa (1966), Biserica Stavropoleos (1967)
, Bizanţ, Balcani, Occident la începuturile culturii medievale româneşti –
secolele X-XIV (1974 ), Itinerarii medievale (1979), Civilizaţia românilor între
medieval şi modern. Orizontul imaginii (1550-1800), I-II, (1992) ; 2nd ed.,
2006), La peinture murale moldave des 15-ème - 16-ème siècles, Ed. UNESCO
(1995), Roumains et Balkaniques dans la civilisation sud-est européenne
(1999), Europa noastră şi noi (2008).
Eduard Ţară (ROMANIA) was born in Iasi, Romania on February 10th,
1969. He studied Mathematics in Iasi. His poems (haiku, tanka and renga) were
published in literary magazines such as Orion, Poezia, Convorbiri Literare
(Romania), Kō (Japonia), Letni Časi (Slovenia) and in several anthologies in
181
Romania, Japan, Croatia, USA, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and France. He is a
member of the Haiku Romanian Society and was awarded at different national
and international haiku and tanga competitions.
Elena-Camelia Zăbavă (ROMANIA) was born in Rosiorii de Vede, a
small town in the South of Romania, in 1964. She graduated from University of
Craiova where she is a lecturer now teaching Linguistics. She obtained her
PH.D. in 2004 at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, with a
dissertation on anthroponomy. Camelia Zăbavă published many scientific
articles and is co-author of important dictionaries such as Dicţionarul istoric al
localităţilor din judeţul Olt, vol. I (Oraşele), Craiova, 2006; Dicţionarul istoric
al localităţilor din judeţul Olt, vol. II (A-F), Craiova, 2006; Dicţionarul istoric
al localităţilor din judeţul Olt, vol. III (G-N), Craiova, 2006, and of the book
Structuri derivaţionale în antroponimia din Oltenia. Camelia Zabava is a
member of the Union of Slavists from Romania; between 1996 and 2007 she
was a member of the editorial board of „Arhivele Olteniei” (an important
magazine published under the auspices of Romanian Academy).
Pavel Gătăianţu (SERBIA) was born in Lokve, St. Mihailo, in Voivodina,
Serbia on December 15, 1957. He graduated from the University of Political
Sciences at the University of Belgrade. After graduation he worked as a
teacher, then as a public information analyst from 1986 until 1990, when he
started working at the Radio Novi Sad as an editor in chief of the cultural
programme in Romanian language. He is not a member of any political party
and he declares himself an independent intellectual. Pavel Gătăianţu established
magazines in Romanian and German languages and he was one of the founders
of the organization “The Community of Romanians in Yugoslavia” being its
first president from 1990 to 1994. He published more than 15 volumes of
poetry; his poems have been published in anthologies in Romania and Serbia
and have been translated into Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Ruthenian,
Slovenian, French, German, and English. He published also the play Mister
Maniu’s Jacket in 1998 and books of prose.
Zoran Pešić Sigma (SERBIA) was born on 30th November 1960 in Bela
Crkva. He studied physics at the University of Niš. He was an editor, a chief
manager and director of Student Cultural Centre of Niš (1985-1990). From
1990 to 1999 he worked in the Cultural Centre as the editor of film program,
chief editor of the magazine “Niš Analyst”, chronicles of culture of the city of
Niš and the chief manager of program of the Cultural Centre. At the moment,
he is working at the Cultural Centre of Niš as an editor in the publishing
department and the editor of the magazine for literature, art and culture
“Gradina”. He is a member of the Union of Writers and published several
books of poems and books of prose (as a co-author). Sigma is one of three
182
authors of the physistic manifest – new poetic movement (1981), The Epic on
the Pollution of the Gabrovac River, a poetic exhibition New Mythic
Landscapes (maps and collages) and the author of many other artistic projects.
He is the author of television serial COOLTOURA, the cultural review of Niš,
Dodo diary (Aster Fest, Strumica).
Maria Denisa Albu (USA, ROMANIA) was born in 1985 in Craiova,
Romania and moved to the United States in 1999. She graduated (magna cum
laude) in 2008 from Georgetown University in Washington, DC with a B.S. in
Foreign Service. She published essays and poems in Lumina Lina. Gracious
Light (USA) and Hyperion (Romania) literary magazines and she participated
in serveral conferences, including at Columbia University in New York and at
the University of Valetta in Malta. Denisa has worked at the World Bank in
Washington, DC and in wind energy project management and she is now
pursuing a Master’s Degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at
Tufts University in Boston, USA.
Theodor Damian (USA, ROMANIA) was born in December 1951 in
Romania and emigrated to the USA in 1988. He is a poet, a theologian and the
minister of the “Saints Apostles Peter and Pavel” Romanian Church in Queens,
NY, as well as a professor of Philosophy and Ethics at “Metropolitan College”
in New York. In 1993 he founded and registred with the American authorities
“The Romanian Institute of Theology and Orthodox Spirituality”, “Saints
Apostles Peter and Pavel” Church and also the Literary Society “Mihai
Eminescu”. At the same time Th. Damian edited the magazine of Romanian
culture and spirituality Lumină lină. Gracious Light. He made his debut as a
poet in the Romanian magazine Almanahul Coresi (Brasov), and then he
published in many other periodicals in Romania and abroad. His first book was
the bi-lingual volume Liturghia cuvântului/ The Liturgy’s Word (1989),
followed by Roua cărţilor, Dimineaţa Învierii, Rugăciuni în Infern, Ispita rănii,
The Icons, Implicaţiile spirituale ale teologiei icoanei, Pasiunea textului,
Nemitarnice, Poesias, Semnul Isar, Stihiri cu stânjenei etc.
Constantin Eretescu (USA, ROMANIA) was born in Cetatea Albă,
Bessarabia. He is an anthropologist, writer, and journalist. Ph.D. at Bucharest
University with a thesis on Romanian mythology (1976). Teacher (1961-1964),
researcher at the Folklore Institute in Bucharest (1964-1980), visiting professor
at Indiana University (1971), editor of Lupta. The Fight, a publication for
Romanian emigrants in North America (1983-1992), part-time professor at
Rhode Island School of Design (1986-1996). He lives in the United States since
1980. Author of studies and books on folk culture, mythology, essays, novels,
and plays.
183
Sanda Golopentia (USA, ROMANIA) is Professor of French Studies at
Brown University, USA. She has published on the subject of literary
pragmatics (mostly analyzing French novels and plays of the XXth century)
and cultural semiotics. Her books include: Les voies de la pragmatique
(Stanford French and Italian Studies, Anma Libri, 1988); Voir les didascalies
(Université de Toulouse Le Mirail & Editions Ophrys, Paris, co-authored), Les
propos spectacle: Études de pragmatique théâtrale (New York, 1996); Desire
Machines: A Romanian Love-Charms Database (Bucharest, 1998), Chemarea
mâinilor negative (The Call of the Negative Hands) (Bucharest, 2002), Hacia
une nueva definición de las didascalías (Madrid: ADE, in press), Emigranţii
Carter (Bucharest, 2008); Viaţa noastră cea de toate zilele (Bucharest, 2009),
Româna globală (Bucharest, 2009) as well as over 200 studies and essays that
were published in the U.S., France, Romania, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Spain,
South Africa and Mexico.
Heinz Uwe-Haus (USA, GERMANY), educated and trained in Germany
at the Film Academy Potsdam-Babelsberg, as well as at the Humboldt
University in Berlin (Cultural Studies, German Literature and Theatre Science).
He is a theatre director, Cultural Studies expert and Theatre scholar. Since
1997, Uwe Haus has been a Professor at the Professional Theatre Training
Program and the Theatre Department of the University of Delaware, Newark
(USA). His productions include plays of the Ancient Greeks, Shakespeare,
German classics, Brecht and the Expressionists, performed both in Germany
and in such countries as Canada, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Turkey and the
USA. Dr. Haus has been a guest professor at more than a dozen North
American universities and has given more than 500 lectures and workshops
worldwide. Besides publishing in his field, he writes about intercultural and
political topics in German, English and Greek media. He is an Honorary
Member of the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute and
Honorary Citizen of the Greek community Katohi. Dr. Haus co-founded with
Nikos Shiafkalis in 1986 the International Work-shop and Study Center for
Ancient Greek Drama in Oinides (Greece). Since 2004 he has served as
Academic Chair of the Institute for Ancient Greek Drama and Theater in
Droushia-Paphos (Cyprus).
184